Here at the Digitization Centre we are fascinated and excited by the vast amount of primary-source material that our digitization work exposes us to. Whether a document of historic significance, a beautiful illustration, or even a particularly fine typeface, we are frequently amazed by the materials we’re working to share with the world. So much so, that not only will we crowd around to ogle a particularly interesting specimen, but we’ve started decorating our workplace with copies of some of our favorites. But why stop there? Surely, we can’t be the only ones geeky enough to appreciate such “gems” in our collections, and so we’ve decided to share them here with you. Below you will find some of our favorites, hand-picked by staff from both existing and upcoming collections. We hope you enjoy them as much as we do!
TIP: To view full resolution versions of the images on any size screen, click to view in Open Collections.
Landscape Paintings of Canadian Pacific Railway Company
Posted on Mar 10, 2020 by margot chen
One nice thing about working with Open Collections is that we can learn from our patrons. In a previous tweet, we shared a serigraph print in original frame with a plaque reading Lake Superior, Ontario, Canadian Pacific from the Chung Collection. A patron pointed out that it looks like a painting by the Group of […]
Explore Open Collections: Westland
Posted on Mar 03, 2020 by margot chen
It’s World Wildlife Day today! In this blog post, we’re going to take a look into the former environmental TV series, Westland. The Westland TV series was broadcasted on the Knowledge Network in British Columbia from 1984 to 2007, hosted by Mike Halleran. The content of the show covers a broad range of environmental issues […]
Explore Open Collections: Association of University and College Employees (AUCE) fonds
Posted on Feb 25, 2020 by margot chen
With the support of CUPE 2950 – Clerical, Library and Theatre Workers at the University of British Columbia and the British Columbia History Digitization Program, the Association of University and College Employees (AUCE) fonds is now accessible in the Open Collections. In 1973, library and clerical workers on university and college campuses across British Columbia began organizing as […]
Family Albums in Open Collections
Posted on Feb 18, 2020 by margot chen
The third Monday of February is Family Day in British Columbia. We hope you enjoyed quality time with your loved ones. In celebration of Family Day, we are sharing some of our favourite family albums from the Open Collections. The MacLachlan Clan – By Bob, [1865-1945?] This is a family album put together by Bob […]
Advertisements in Wartime
Posted on Feb 11, 2020 by margot chen
Historical newspapers are a useful source of information for understanding social and cultural trends during specific times. In the BC Historical Newspapers collection, we have digitized more than 53,000 newspaper issues from around the province, dating from 1859 to 1995. In this post, we compile a few advertisements from the collection dating from the First […]
Heritage Buildings in Downtown Vancouver
Posted on Feb 04, 2020 by margot chen
In the Uno Langmann Family Collection of British Columbia Photographs, we have historic photographs depicting street scenes in Vancouver in the early 1900s. In this post, we will introduce some of our favourite photographs, showing the heritage buildings in Downtown Vancouver. We hope you can identify these buildings and how they have changed since then! […]
Explore Open Collections: Interim Forest Cover Series Maps
Posted on Jan 28, 2020 by margot chen
From 1951 to 1957, British Columbia made the first-ever systematic inventory of the province’s forests. In 1958, the Interim Forest Cover Series Maps were produced using a combination of aerial photographs (40 chain photos) and ground sampling plots. Each map is accompanied by an envelope, providing a forest inventory summary of the region within the […]
Oldest Books in Open Collections
Posted on Jan 21, 2020 by margot chen
Before the invention of the printing press, books were produced by hand. You can find examples of such manuscripts from the 13th and 14th centuries in the collection of Western Manuscripts and Early Printed Books. [Bible], [between 1200 and 1299] One of the oldest manuscript books in Open Collections is a Latin Bible from the […]
Exploring Architectural Drawings of UBC Vancouver Campus
Posted on Jan 14, 2020 by margot chen
A number of architectural plans and drawings of UBC Vancouver Campus are housed in the UBC Archives. They document the evolution and growth of the campus. In this post, we pair a few sketches with the photographs of buildings on campus from the UBC Archives Photograph Collection. Woodward Library Woodward Library is connected to the […]
Happy Holidays from the Digitization Centre!
Posted on Dec 24, 2019 by margot chen
Happy holidays everyone! In the spirit of the holiday season, enjoy some festive images from Open Collections. Check out these holiday greeting cards: This is Yip Sang’s personal greeting card from the Chung collection Here are more paintings of this season: Finally, here are photographs of a wintery UBC campus from the UBC Archives Photograph […]
