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.
Greater Vancouver Regional District – Planning Department Land Use Maps
Posted on Sep 10, 2013 by Rob
Metro Vancouver (previously the Great Vancouver Regional District), the regional political and corporate body representing 24 Lower Mainland authorities, has granted permission to the UBC Library to digitized a series of planing department land use maps. There are four series: 1965, 1971, 1980 covering the Lower Mainland and 1983 for the City of Vancouver only. […]
Fisherman Publishing Society Collection
Posted on Jul 16, 2013 by Rob
The UBC Library Rare Books & Special Collections division has as one of its many unique and fascinating collections the photographic material of the Fisherman Publishing Society. The Society published the bi-weekly newspaper The Fisherman for two important fishing unions: the Salmon Purse Seiners Union and the Pacific Coast Fishermen’s Union. As you can see […]
What do hedgehogs and cats have in common?
Posted on Jul 12, 2013 by pughchr
They both play croquet, apparently! Digital Initiatives is currently digitizing selected images from the Arkley Croquet Collection, which is housed in UBC Library’s Rare Books and Special Collections. The Arkley Croquet Collection contains more than 2,000 images taken from a variety of media and dates from the mid-nineteenth century to the early twenty-first century. As […]
The Okanagan Historical Society Reports
Posted on Jul 02, 2013 by pughchr
The annual reports of the Okanagan Historical Society are now available as a digital collection. There are 69 issues in the collection, dating back to 1926 and continuing until 2007. The issues are fully searchable online and available for download as PDF documents. The Okanagan Historical Society has always been active in promoting the history […]
Update of Bullock Webster Collection
Posted on Jun 24, 2013 by pughchr
The Bullock Webster collection has been updated with new high-quality images. The original material, an album filled with watercolour and ink sketches, is very delicate. As such, the digital collection up until now was composed of scans we made of the old access photographs. Although we tried to make these scans represent the original sketches […]
Delgamuukw Trial Transcripts
Posted on May 31, 2013 by pughchr
For Aboriginal (Un)History Month, we are featuring our digital collection of the Delgamuukw trial transcripts, which document a landmark case in British Columbian and Canadian history. The Delgamuukw case began in 1984 with the Gitxan and Wet’suwet’en Nations claiming ownership and jurisdiction over 58,000 square kilometres […]
The “Tairiku Nippō” (Continental Daily News)
Posted on May 17, 2013 by Rob
The “Tairiku Nippō” (Continental Daily News) was a predominantly Japanese language newspaper published in Vancouver, British Columbia from January 1908 through December 6, 1941, the eve of Pearl Harbor. One of the few sources of news for Japanese immigrants to Canada the newspaper is a unique cultural record of the Japanese-Canadian experience in Canada. The […]
A picture’s worth a thousand words…
Posted on Apr 15, 2013 by Laura Ferris
The Chung Collection contains thousands of photographs and slides, many of which we have already uploaded to CONTENTdm and are available online through the Chung Collection website. While we continue to upload new items, we are also doing a little bit of file maintenance and upgrading on the existing files, also known as the “glamorous […]
King Neptune’s Dinner Party
Posted on Apr 12, 2013 by Larissa
If you read Laura’s previous post on the Empress of Britain, you’ll have some appreciation for this gorgeous old Canadian Pacific ocean liner. The Chung Collection has some wonderful ephemera related the ship including this pamphlet for King Neptune’s Dinner Party from the 1934 world cruise. Not only the menu for the dinner party (iced […]
Westland television series
Posted on Mar 18, 2013 by Rob
The Westland television series was produced and hosted from 1984 to 2007 by Mike Halleran and broadcast on the Knowledge Network in British Columbia. The content of the show covers a broad range of environmental issues of importance to the province as well as more generally including forestry practices, wildlife conservation and human impact on […]
