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.
Recipes from the Punjabi Patrika Archive
Posted on Nov 14, 2023 by Jillian
Punjabi Patrika is a bilingual Punjabi – English newspaper out of Abbotsford, B.C. Its publication began in October 1996 and continues to be published weekly to this day in 2023. Digitization of the first 18 years of the newspapers physical archive (1996-2014) was recently completed, all of which are now available through UBC’s Open Collections! […]
Superstition and Witchcraft
Posted on Oct 31, 2023 by Jillian
Content Warning: Some content within this blog refers to violence against women within the context of witch hunts. Please take care when reading this blog as well as if you search within Open Collections for content related to the topic of witchcraft and superstition as it may contain upsetting, discriminatory sentiments. Do you consider yourself […]
A View of TRIUMF from the UBC Archives Photograph Collection
Posted on Oct 17, 2023 by Jillian
Canada’s National Laboratory for Particle and Nuclear Physics, otherwise known as TRIUMF, is a research facility on the UBC Vancouver campus. Tucked beside Pacific Spirit Regional Park on the south side of campus, the facility officially opened in 1976. The consortium was founded in 1968 as a collaboration between Simon Fraser University, University of British […]
Paul Spong’s Auditory Whale Research
Posted on Oct 03, 2023 by Jillian
One thing about UBC’s Open Collections, is that if you browse long enough you’re bound to find something fascinating that you didn’t know you were looking for. While gathering content for the Digitization Center’s twitter account I came across an image from 1969 of a man leaning down towards a pool, he was playing […]
Vancouver’s Feminist Punk Rockers of the 70’s and 80’s
Posted on Sep 19, 2023 by Jillian
Content warning: some of the articles use foul language and mention violence against women. Punk music and subculture may not be the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of Vancouver’s rich history. While Vancouver is the home of D.O.A., arguably one of the founding bands of the genre, the city’s vibrant and politically […]
Aftermath of 1997 APEC Protest
Posted on Aug 29, 2023 by Gage
Warning: this blog post contains images of violence. This is the second part to a two part blog post on the 1997 APEC Economic Leaders Meeting at UBC and the student and activist protest that occurred. If you missed the first part, it can be read here. The protest of the APEC meeting that occurred […]
1997 APEC meeting at UBC
Posted on Aug 23, 2023 by Gage
Warning: this blog post contains images of violence. A few weeks ago I wrote about the 1993 presidential summit between Bill Clinton and Boris Yeltsin at UBC. However, that wasn’t the only time President Clinton visited the campus, as he would return four years later to meet with seventeen other nations leaders in the 1997 […]
A selection of Poems and Poetry from Open Collections
Posted on Aug 15, 2023 by Gage
Poetry is a very popular form of literary work that appears frequently in many different places within Open Collections. For this weeks blog post I have search for examples from a handful of publications to share. The genre of poems vary wildly and even within this small sample there are love poems, rhyme poems for […]
The artwork and Illustrations of the Kamishibai Propaganda Plays collection.
Posted on Aug 08, 2023 by Gage
The Kamishibai Propaganda Plays collection is a collection of very rare, two sided cards that have illustrations on one side and text on the other. They are designed to be used by a presenter to tell a story. These plays were produced in Japan during the second world war, and were able to be digitized […]
The SUB & the Nest: The visual history of the UBC Student spaces.
Posted on Aug 01, 2023 by Gage
The Student Union Building (SUB), now called the UBC Life Building, and the Nest are the student community cornerstone of the UBC campus. The AMS Image Collection has many photographs of both buildings that have served to document the day to day activities of student life in and around the buildings. For this weeks blogpost […]
