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.


Explore Illustrations of Plants in Open Collections

Posted on Dec 03, 2019 by margot chen
In a previous blog post, we discussed John Gerard’s The herball, or, Generall historie of plants (1597), a book that features lists of plants with accompanying descriptions of their properties. For this blog, we will introduce more illustrations of plants in our Open Collections. Botanical and ethnological appendix to Menzies’ journal of Vancouver’s voyage, April […]


Advertisements for Canadian Pacific Steamships: Part II

Posted on Nov 26, 2019 by margot chen
The Chung Collection has thousands of photographs and related material on CPR steamships with a particular emphasis on the Empress class ships. Some of the related material includes pamphlets, menus, world cruise photograph albums, clippings, diaries, and correspondence from both passengers and employees of these vessels. In this two-part series, we will explore some advertisements […]


Advertisements for Canadian Pacific Steamships: Part I

Posted on Nov 19, 2019 by margot chen
In 1887, the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) started a Trans-Pacific service from Vancouver to Asia. With the success of this new venture, the CPR adopted a new name for the steamship services, calling it the Canadian Pacific Steamship Company (CPSC). In 1915, the CPR decided to make the division into a separate entity, the Canadian […]


Vancouver, B.C., 1890

Explore Open Collections: UBC Library Digitization Centre Special Projects

Posted on Nov 14, 2019 by margot chen
The UBC Library Digitization Centre Special Projects collection is a variety of smaller projects from the UBC Library Rare Books & Special Collections or University Archives divisions. There are 106 items in this collection, including maps, books, albums, and other miscellaneous documents. These projects emphasize the depth and breadth of the Library’s rare materials holdings […]


Images of Foreign Culture in Edo-Period Japan

Posted on Nov 05, 2019 by margot chen
In a previous post, we introduced some maps from the Japanese Maps of the Tokugawa Era Collection. UBC Library’s Rare Books and Special Collections holds one of the world’s largest collections of maps and guidebooks of the Japanese Tokugawa period, ca. 1600-1868. This collection does not consist simply of maps of Japan. It also has […]


UBC Library-sponsored registration for DHSI 2020

Posted on Oct 29, 2019 by margot chen
DHSI – the Digital Humanities Summer Institute – is a training program held every summer at the University of Victoria. Delivered over a week, each course is an intensive series of classes interspersed with colloquiums, unconferences, and other community-based events, and provides an ideal environment for influencing teaching, research, dissemination, creation, and preservation in different […]


Main Mall then and now

Posted on Oct 22, 2019 by margot chen
The UBC Archives Photograph Collection has over 40,000 photographic images dating from the founding of UBC to the present day. They present a visual record of UBC’s growth and development, the evolution of student life, and campus events over most of the past century. In a previous blog post, Now & Then, we showed how […]


Explore Open Collections: History of Nursing in Pacific Canada: Part 2

Posted on Oct 15, 2019 by margot chen
This two-part series introduce the collection of History of Nursing in Pacific Canada. You can view Part 1 here. In previous blog posts, we profiled Ethel Johns Fonds, and Laura Holland Fonds. Lyle Creelman Fonds Lyle Creelman (1908-2007) was the Chief Nursing Officer of the World Health Organization from 1954–1968. She established national and international […]


Explore Open Collections: History of Nursing in Pacific Canada: Part 1

Posted on Oct 10, 2019 by margot chen
If you are a nursing and health history buff, there’s something you won’t want to miss, the collection of History of Nursing in Pacific Canada. This two-part series will explore some highlights of the collection. The History of Nursing in Pacific Canada digital collection was developed by the UBC Library, together with the UBC School […]


Launching Historical Children’s Literature Collection

Posted on Oct 01, 2019 by margot chen
The Historical Children’s Literature Collection contains more than 80 images of variations on classic children’s tales. Made possible by a UBC Teaching and Learning Enhancement Fund (TLEF) grant, this collection is a collaboration with the Library’s Rare Books and Special Collections, UBC’s iSchool, and the Department of English Language and Literatures. Particularly strong in chapbooks […]


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