How Are Collections Made?

While browsing through our digital collections, you might start wondering how all of these items originally came together. Every collection has its own unique story, and we’ve chosen to highlight two such stories in this week’s post. Maybe it will motivate you to start your own collection!

Chung Collection

The Chung Collection currently has over 25,000 items and is the result of 60 years of collecting. The collection was donated to UBC Library’s Rare Books and Special Collections by Drs. Wallace and Madeline Chung. The inspiration to create such a collection came from when Wallace Chung was still a young boy. He saw an illustrated poster of the Canadian Pacific Railway’s Empress of Asia in his father’s tailor shop in Victoria, British Columbia, and it moved him to begin his own collection.

Dr. Chung started collecting all the materials that he could, starting with small items such as clippings from newspapers and magazines for his scrapbook, posters and tickets. He then began going to flea markets and antique shops as his collection grew. Eventually, after 25 years of collecting, he found that he didn’t need to visit the shops any more, as they instead began to alert him when items came in that they thought he might like.

Today, the Chung Collection contains many rare and unique items, including: books, maps, paintings, poster, photographs, silverware, tableware, ceramic ware and other artifacts. The collection allows its users to explore themes relating to immigration and settlement in British Columbia, the early history of the province, and about the Canadian Pacific Railway Company.

Empress of Asia, 1920

Click here to view the Chung Collection

Hawthorn Fly Fishing & Angling Collection

The Hawthorn Fly Fishing & Angling Collection contains over 2,000 books, including rare and valuable items about angling and fly-fishing, and it began with a fishing trip.

In 1953, eight UBC professors went fishing for a holiday, and decided to start a foundation with the money from bets and fines for illegal or non-ethical fishing methods. The money would be used to purchase books about angling and game fish for UBC Library. The collection was then further developed with the purchase of books from fines and it also received gifts of books and money to increase the collection.

The fly maker’s hand-book; representing upwards of fifty of the most useful artificial flies for trout…, 1886

Click here to view the Hawthorn Fly Fishing & Angling Collection

Uno Langmann Family Collection of BC Photographs

Uno Langmann is a well-known Vancouver fine arts collector. He started the Family Collection of BC Photographs in the 1960s when he realized the importance of the albums for the history of British Columbia.

The collection under his name is the largest historical photo collection of BC, with over 18,000 photographs from the 1850s to the 1970s.