British Columbia Historical Photographs Online
British Columbia Historical Photographs Online contains annotated links to
Online Photograph Databases and Online Photograph Galleries
mounted on archival web sites in British Columbia.
Maintained by the Archives Association of British Columbia
Revised: March 2013
Online Photograph Databases
Alberni
Valley Museum Historic Photograph Collection
Provides an online photograph database for historical images of
the Alberni Valley.
Bella Coola Museum: B.C. Central Coast Archives
Photograph Collection
Provides an online photograph database for historical images of
the Bella Coola Valley.
British Columbia Archives (Royal BC Museum) --
Visual Records Online
Database contains textual descriptions of photographs,
paintings, drawings and prints from the British Columbia Archives'
visual records collection. Of these over 110,000 items have images
on-line for viewing.
BC Institute of Technology Archives -- Aircraft
Training Maintenance Multi-media Collection
Provides access to a searchable multi-media collection related to
the first fifty years of Aircraft Maintenance Training.
City of Richmond Archives -- Historical
Photographs
Out of the City Archives photograph collection of 100,000+ images
from 1880 to 2005, more than 7,000 have been scanned and
published online. Among the many topics are: farming and
fishing, Richmond's bridges, schools, aerial photographs, and
citizens from 1880 to the present.
City of Surrey Archives
The City of Surrey Archives' SAMOA (Surrey Archives & Museum Online Access)
database provides access to over 10,000 digitized
photographs.
City of Vancouver Archives Historical
Photographs
The Archives photograph holdings are comprised of more than one
million images from private-sector and public-sector records.
Approximately 80,000 images described at the item level are
available for public reference in the Archives' Reference Room.
Roughly 72,000 item-level descriptions are available in the
database and of these, about 58,000 have scanned images linked to
the description. Photographs depict subjects relating to
Vancouver's history, government and culture from the 1860s to the
2000s.
Delta
Museum and Archives
The Archives Collection database includes over
3,600 digitized historical photographs integrated with the catalog
record.
Greater Vernon Museum and Archives Online
Photograph Database
Provides an online photograph database for historical images of
Vernon and area in the holdings of the Greater Vernon Museum and
Archives.
Heritage
Burnaby
Online database of the City of Burnaby's collections of
photographs, artifacts, textual records and heritage landmarks.
Langley Centennial Museum Photograph
Collection
Provides an online database of nearly 5,000 historical
photographs in the holdings of the Langley Centennial Museum and
National Exhibition Centre.
New
Westminster Public Library Historical Photo Database
Provides an online database of the Library's historical photograph
collection.
North Vancouver Museum and Archives
Integrated database of archival holdings includes
descriptions and scanned images from the 45,000 historic
photographs of North Vancouver and area preserved in the Archives
Collection.
R.J.
Haney Heritage Village & Museum (Salmon Arm)
The Photo Archives is a database searchable by
keyword and date ranges between 1900 and 2012.
Royal British Columbia Museum,
Thompson-Okanagan Historic Photographs
Part of the Museum's Living Landscapes project covering the
Thompson-Okanagan region, this site offers a database
of scanned images of historic photographs drawn from the
holdings of the Kelowna Museum, the Historic O'Keefe Ranch, the
En'Owkin Centre, and the Okanagan Centre Museum.
UBC Library Digital
Collections and Services
This site provides an overview of digital collections created and
maintained by the University of British Columbia Library:
- British Columbia History Digital Collections: These digitized collections document aspects of the history of British Columbia represented in the holdings of UBC Library's Rare Books and Special Collections and the University Archives. The collections contain digitized photographs, audio and video recordings, manuscripts (including correspondence and diaries), newspapers and other publications, and ephemera.
- University of British Columbia Digital Collections: Included in these collections, developed and maintained by the University of British Columbia Archives, are digitized photographs, audio-visual recordings, manuscripts, official University reports, publications, and virtual displays. Together these collections present a record of UBC's growth and development, prominent student and faculty personalities, the evolution of student life, and campus events over the past century.
- Other UBC Library Digital Collections: These collections consist of materials held by various branches of the UBC Library, and document various fields of world history and, in some cases, contemporary events. The collections consist of manuscripts, maps and other cartographic materials, artwork, photographs, audio-visual materials, websites, and ephemera.
University of
Victoria Archives Historical Photograph Collection
The database provides access to images from the University of
Victoria Archives historical photograph collection, most depicting
persons, events and facilities at the University of Victoria and
its predecessor body, Victoria College.
Vancouver Public Library Historical Photographs
Collection
The collection was established by Ron D'Altroy in the early 1960s.
Over time, the number of photographs housed in the Special
Collections Division has increased through the acquisition of a
number of major collections, some of which have been digitized and
made available through an online Historical Photographs database. Several of the
collections are also accessible through thematic digital collections.
Wells
Archives Photograph Collection
This online database contains 200 historical images from the Wells
Archives (Wells Historical Society) depicting people, activity,
industry and scenes around Wells and Barkerville.
West
Vancouver Archives
Searchable database includes more than 2,000 scanned historic
photographs and documents.
Online Photograph Galleries
Bowen
Island Museum and Archives
Photo gallery provides a selection of historical images of
people and activities on Bowen Island.
Campbell River Museum and Archives
"'A Moment in Time', A Collection of Henry Twidle's
Photographs" is a virtual exhibit incorporating photographs
from the archival holdings of the Museum at Campbell River taken by
Henry Twidle at the beginning of the 20th century. Photographs
include logging camps, commercial fishing boats and canneries, and
pioneer settlements and settlers. Pacific Coast Salmon Fisheries was an earlier
online gallery of historical photographs depicting fishing
technology and techniques from First Nations to the present
day.
Chilliwack Museum and
Archives
The Online Exhibits section of the Museum includes
historical photographs of Chilliwack and area.
City of Victoria Archives
The City of Victoria Archives provides an online gallery of
photographs of Royal Visits between 1939 and
1971 and the Victoria 150 Archival Photos tribute to
Victoria's 150th anniversary in 2012.
Comox
Archives and Museum
Archival photographs of Comox and area are featured in
topical pages about the community's history.
Enderby and District Museum and Archives
Online exhibit ("Snapshots from the Past") of historical
photographs organized by theme documenting the history of Enderby
and surrounding areas. Includes an Image
Directory with links to all online photographs.
The
Exploration Place Museum & Science Centre (Fraser-Fort
George Regional Museum)
Several Online Exhibits document the history of Prince George and
the surrounding region, including two exhibits that examine the
lives and work of two photoraphers: the J. Simonson Photographic Collection presents
images taken by Jacob Simonson, depicting scenes, activities and
people in the Fort George (Prince George) area of Central British
Columbia in the early part of the 20th century; the Wally West
Collection features the work of Prince George commercial
photographer W.D. West who established his studio in 1946.
Galiano
Museum & Archives
Several examples of collections include historical
photographs.
Kitimat Museum &
Archives
The Project History is an illustrated history of
the development of the smelter and town of Kitimat and of the
Kitimat-Kemano Project.
Powell
River Historical Museum and Archives
The LeMay Lane Photos exhibit features over
2500 of early photos of Powell River taken by Rod LeMay and Maud
Lane.
Prince Rupert City and Regional Archives Photograph
Gallery
Gallery provides sample images of historical photographs from the
archives' holdings depicting scenes of Prince Rupert and area.
Revelstoke
Museum and Archives Historical Photographs
Gallery provides samples of historical images from the archives'
photograph holdings.
Rossland Museum Photo Gallery
Gallery provides samples of historical photographs from the
archives' holdings relating to Rossland and the Le Roi mines.
Salt Spring Island
Archives
The Our Collections sections contains links to many
examples of historical photographs of Salt Spring Island from a
variety of collections in the archives' holdings.
Silverton
Historical Society Photographs
Gallery contains historical photographs of Silverton and New
Denver from the archives' holdings.
Touchstones Nelson
Some of Touchstones Nelson's digitization activities relating to
its photographs holdings include
- Touchstones Nelson's Flickr Photostream contains digitized nitrate negatives, including photographs by J. H. Allen, Geo. A. Meeres, and J. D. Spurway
- Changes Upstream - the Photographs of Stanley G. Triggs offers over 200 photographs taken by Triggs between 1969 and 1972 as he visually documented the impact of the Libby Dam's construction in Montana on the Kootenay River in BC.
- Landscape Lost: Forestry and Life in the Duncan River Valley, an online exhibit featuring hundreds of photographs taken by Bob Wallace of the Upper Duncan River Valley, Bear Lookout, Howser and Lardeau from 1942 to 1952.
Trail City
Archives
The Photo Gallery features images grouped into 27
themed collections depicting scenes of Trail from ca. 1896 to
the early 1990s. The gallery is also searchable by keyword and
topic.
United Church of Canada British Columbia
Conference Archives
The Virtual Exhibit (Photogallery) features images
depicting the history of the United Church of Canada's Marine Missions on the Central Coast of British
Columbia and Japanese Missions in BC.
University of
British Columbia Archives
In addition to its comprehensive online photograph database, UBC
Archives has now begun to add photograph galleries to inventories
of fonds and collections in its holdings. Included are: the Gavin
Dirom Photo Gallery and the George
Van Wilby Photo Gallery.
Vancouver Island University, Nanaimo
Chinatowns Project
As a part of a major online exhibition documenting the history of
the various Chinatowns in Nanaimo, site provides searchable, online
access to related historical photographs from the holdings of the
Nanaimo Community Archives.
Vancouver Public Library Digital Collections
Online
Digital collections available online include the:
- Leonard Frank Photograph Collection
- Philip T.Timms: Vancouver's Golden Years: 1900-1910
- British Columbia Through the Camera Lens of Philip Timms
- Mattie Gunterman: Camp Cook and Photographer
- The Artray Photograph Collection: Vignettes of Post War Vancouver
- The Canadian Pacific Railway Photograph Collection: A Special Collection of Photographs Documenting the History of the CPR in British Columbia.
Virtual
Museum of Canada
The Community Memories section contains over 50
online exhibits from British Columbia, most of which utilize
historical photographs from archival collections. The Image Gallery section showcases thousands
of artefacts, photos, paintings and objects from Canadian
museums.
Whistler
Museum and Archives
The Photo Gallery contains several thematic
collections offering a variety of historical photographs
documenting the development of the Whistler community and
surrounding region. Two online exhibits are devoted to the Pioneer Photographs from the Myrtle Phillip
Collection and The History of Olympic Bids.
