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.


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 […]


Classified ads of the bygone days in the Aldergrove star

Posted on Jul 25, 2023 by Gage
For this weeks blogpost I decided to return to the BC Historic Newspapers collection in order to find something from the past to write on. In my opinion, the most interesting part of the newspaper is Classified ads where people place advertisements for all the goods and services they are looking to buy, sell, and […]


Interesting By-laws of Victoria in 1877

Posted on Jul 18, 2023 by Gage
Our BC Historical books collection contains a copy of the City of Victoria By-laws from 1877. Some of these laws are very interesting and not pieces of legislation you would expect in todays world, such as a municipality regulating the sale and distribution of poisons. Below are some of the notable laws on the books […]


1993 U.S.-Russian Presidential Summit at UBC

Posted on Jul 11, 2023 by Gage
After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Russian Federation and United States made an effort to attempt to establish better diplomacy as to step away from the tension of the Cold war to try and build a new era of cooperation. Part of this process was to establish a meeting between newly elected Presidents […]


Interesting By-laws of Vancouver in 1898.

Posted on Jul 04, 2023 by Gage
Our BC Historical books collection contains a copy of the City of Vancouver By-Laws from 1898. Reading from them almost one hundred and twenty-five years later, there are some odd legislative topics that pop-out from the more mundane issues such as building codes and health inspection. Below are some of the notable laws on the […]


Women at work during WWI.

Posted on Jun 27, 2023 by Gage
World War One is known for the apocalyptic destruction brought to Europe, North Africa, and the Near East brought by the clashing of Allied and Central powers. A large part of this was the emergence of the horrifying brutality of trench warfare and the weapon developments of such systems as airplanes, howitzers, and early tanks. […]


The Trinkets, Kitchenware, and Knickknacks of the Wallace B. Chung and Madeline H. Chung Collection.

Posted on Jun 20, 2023 by Gage
The Wallace B. Chung and Madeline H. Chung Collection in UBC’s Open Collections is home to many different objects from the early and mid-twentieth century. Many of these items are related to the Canadian Pacific Company and are from the steam ships, hotels, trains, and planes that took many passengers all over Canada and beyond. […]


Jell-o: the culinary curiosities of the twentieth century.

Posted on Jun 13, 2023 by Gage
Jell-o is an affordable dessert that has been enjoyed in Canada and the United States since its creation in the early 1900s. Throughout the years many people have tried experimenting with Jell-o to see what tasty creations they could come up with. This was especially true during the 1940s when many people were trying to […]


Early cartographic misconceptions of Western North America: The island of California and the Sea of the West

Posted on Jun 06, 2023 by Gage
While browsing through the older maps in the Andrew McCormick Maps and Prints collection, or some of the maps of the Americas in the Japanese Maps of the Tokugawa Era collection, you may notice a couple of strange errors. The first of which is that California, through the late 17th and mid 18th centuries, was […]


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