Open Collections has several collections related to fishing. Today, we will introduce a few of these collections and our favourite digitized items!
Fisherman Publishing Society Collection
In the Fisherman Publishing Society Collection, we have digitized around 4,000 photographs taken from 1862 to 1989. The Fisherman Publishing Society formed in 1937 and had published a bi-weekly newspaper, The Fisherman, for the Salmon Purse Seiners Union and its successor, the United Fisherman and Allied Workers’ Union. The paper was about the fishing industry and union events to promote unity among West Coast fishermen. The photographs depict labour and union activity, fish and fishing vessels, and the men and women who worked in the fishing industry. The archival collections are housed in UBC Rare Books and Special Collections, with other correspondence, a scrapbook, meeting minutes, ships’ logs and the Harry Allison papers.
View of Dave Carlson’s boat the Spirit of B.C. at launching June, 1968.
Herring sale by Fishers Union at New Westminster to aid CKNW orphans fund December, 1968.
Hawthorn Fly Fishing & Angling Collection
UBC Library has more than 2,200 books on angling and fly-fishing, known as the Harry Hawthorn Collection. The collection started when a group of UBC professors went fishing for a holiday in 1953. They decided to launch a foundation with the accumulated money from various bets and fines for alleged illegal or non-ethical fishing methods. The current members of the Foundation are continuing this tradition to go fly-fishing in early August, and the increased funding has gone towards developing the collection.
In Open Collections, we have digitized around 50 representative titles as Hawthorn Fly Fishing & Angling Collection with generous support by the Harry Hawthorn Foundation.
Sparrow, Walter Shaw. Angling in British art through five centuries: prints, pictures, books, 1923.
[Lang, Cecil]. The mighty mahseer and other fish : or hints to beginners on Indian fishing, 1906.
Traité général des pesches
Traité général des pesches consists of a digitized book with two volumes, Traité général des pesches, et histoire des poissons qu’elles fournissent, tant pour la subsistance des hommes, que pour plusieurs autres usages qui on rapport aux arts et au commerce, [between 1769-1782]. These volumes, written by a French physician and botanist, Henri-Louis Duhamel du Monceau (1700-1782) and Jean-Louis De La Marre between 1769 and 1782, were considered one of the finest works on fishing and fisheries.
Duhamel du Monceau, M. Traité général des pesches, et histoire des poissons qu’elles fournissent, tant pour la subsistance des hommes, que pour plusieurs autres usages qui on rapport aux arts et au commerce, [between 1769-1782].
Duhamel du Monceau, M. Traité général des pesches, et histoire des poissons qu’elles fournissent, tant pour la subsistance des hommes, que pour plusieurs autres usages qui on rapport aux arts et au commerce. Seconde partie, [between 1769-1782].
Along with the entire volumes, we also separately digitized all of the illustrated plates in the books:
Duhamel du Monceau, M. Part 1, Section 1, Plate 2, [between 1769-1782].
Duhamel du Monceau, M. Part 2, Section 1, Plate 10, [between 1769-1782].
UBC Institute of Fisheries Field Records
UBC Institute of Fisheries Field Records have more than 10,000 digitized records on fish specimens in the UBC Fish Collection housed in the Beaty Biodiversity Museum, which is the third-largest fish collection in Canada.
The fish records include information about where and what kinds of fish were caught. This data has been used in environmental assessments, conservation efforts and research projects in an aquatic ecosystem.
The oldest record in 1877, for instance, shows the record of Hyperoplus lanceolatus (Greater sand eel) caught in Estonia:
UBC Institute of Fisheries Field Record B.C. 63-943, 1877.
The latest record in 1991 have 13 different types of fishes caught near Helby Island, BC:
UBC Institute of Fisheries Filed Record B.C. 90-191, 1991.
If you want to explore more about these collections, please visit our past blog posts:
- Explore Open Collections – Fisherman Publishing Society (Digitizer’s blog, September 29, 2016)
- Explore Open Collections: Harry Hawthorn Fly Fishing and Angling Collection (Digitizer’s blog, April 24, 2018)
- UBC Institute of Fisheries Filed Records (Digitizer’s blog, August 8, 2014)
- Fisherman Publishing Society Collection (Digitizer’s blog, July 16, 2013)
