Family day is observed each year on the third Monday in February in most provinces across Canada. In British Columbia, the holiday was adopted in 2013 and was originally observed on the second Monday of February. This was the case until 2019, at which point the province moved the holiday to the third Monday of the month in order to align with the schedule that the rest of the country abides by.
In celebration of yesterday having been Family Day, this week’s blog post is a collection of family portraits from various sources found within Open Collections. Home to thousands of photographs, these portraits were found across several collections, either as stand-alone items or as part of family albums.
In this photograph, the Timms family stands in front of a small boat in Port Moody, B.C., thought to be from around 1910.
This photograph features a family with parents and two small children standing in a garden. Thought to be taken between 1900-1920, there is no information on the identity of this family.
This image of the Unger family standing in front of Johnson Electric co. is from an envelope that contained film negatives. The envelope indicates that the film was developed for Mrs. Unger at Camera and Arts ltd. at 610 Granville St. in Vancouver, B.C. Thought to be from between 1904-1924.
[Ward Family, Vancouver, B.C.]
This photograph is of the Ward family giving a musical performance in front of Vancouver’s City Hall in 1940. The names of the family members are printed on the front of the image: “Marjorie, Doris, Walter, Lawrence, Lillian – conductor, James, Clara, Daddy Ward”.
[Photo Album of Unknown Family]
This photograph of a family kayaking is from the photo album of an unknown family, thought to be from between 1925-1940.
This portrait is of the Shigetaka Sasaki family sitting in a garden, the date is unknown.
Niwatsukino family working on farm in Turin, Alberta
The Niwatsukino family with horses in Alberta, from 1942.
This family wedding portrait features people dressed in both traditional Chinese garments as well as Western garments, the image is from some time after 1920.
This photograph is of a family sitting on a front lawn. The hand written note at the bottom of the photograph identifies them as “our Piano mover and family”. Thought to be from between 1890-1899.
We hope you enjoyed this blog post and that you had an enjoyable long weekend. Thank you for reading!
If these photographs piqued your interest, there are many more family photographs available for browsing in Open Collections.
