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.
Early 20th Century View Of Stanley Park, Vancouver, British Columbia
Posted on Nov 29, 2012 by Rob
A beautiful glass plate negative from the Rosetti studios in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. This image depicts Siwash Rock located on the northwest edge of Stanley Park in Vancouver. These negatives have a great depth to them yielding lustrous digital images. Check out the other images in the collection (N.B. We are in the process […]
Story of Victor Wong
Posted on Nov 14, 2012 by Mayu
Victor Wong is a WWII veteran from Victoria, BC. He was one of thousands of Chinese immigrants enlisted by the Canadian forces during the war and assigned to the British forces. The British territories in Asia had been occupied by Japan, and English speakers of Chinese origin were sent there to engage in guerrilla warfare […]
CP Hotel menus
Posted on Nov 09, 2012 by Larissa
Have you ever ordered food from hotel room service and were shocked when your clubhouse and coffee came to $30? Well, it looks like steep room service prices aren’t a recent phenomenon. Take this 1962 menu from the historic CP Empress Hotel in Victoria. Billed as a typical winter menu for the hotel dining room, […]
Baseball at internment camps
Posted on Oct 23, 2012 by Mayu
The Japanese Canadian Photograph Collection (JCPC) chronicles the experiences of Japanese Canadians / Nikkei in British Columbia including their internment during World War II. These photographs from the JCPC are a testament to the popularity of baseball at internment camps. (Left: at Lucerne, B.C. in the Yellow Pass, Bottom: at an unidentified camp) Baseball was […]
Explore Open Collections: Berkeley 1968-1973 Poster Collection
Posted on Oct 18, 2012 by Rob
The Berkeley Posters collection, housed in Rare Books & Special Collections at the UBC Library, comprises 250 posters from the years 1968 to 1973. Covering anti-war and pro-social justice themes the posters run the gamut of concerns of the time such as the Vietnam War and corporate responsibility. Produced by student and underground groups on […]
御開港横濵之全圖 Gokaikō Yokohama no zenzu (Japanese Maps of the Tokugawa Era)
Posted on Oct 01, 2012 by Mayu
In 1858, Japan signed the Ansei Five-Power Treaties with the United States, Great Britain, Russia, Netherlands, and France. The following year in 1859, the port of Yokohama opened to foreign trade as specified in these treaties. 御開港横濵之全圖 Gokaikō Yokohama no zenzu marks the opening of the port and depicts ships from the five nations […]
Explore Open Collections: David Conde Fonds
Posted on Sep 28, 2012 by Larissa
This image is from a project currently underway: the digitization of the David Conde Fonds. A Canadian journalist working in Japan from the 1940’s through the 1960’s, David Conde reported on the IMTFE (International Military Tribunal for the Far East) trials for Reuters from 1946-1948. Also known as the Tokyo War Crimes Trials, the tribunal […]
Explore Open Collections: Rosetti Studios – Stanley Park Collection
Posted on Sep 27, 2012 by slindber
The following images, part of UBC Library Archive’s Haweis Family fonds (PDF link), are from of a series of images taken by Rosetti Photographic Studios in Vancouver’s Stanley Park in 1912. Lionel Haweis emigrated to Canada from England in 1907, where he opened Rosetti Photographic Studios on Pender St., and later on Robson St. In 1918 he was […]
BC Historical Newspapers
Posted on Sep 21, 2012 by mikec
Digital Initiatives has added two new titles to the BC Historical Newspapers website. In collaboration with the Sunshine Coast Museum and Archives, we have uploaded 40 years of the Coast News to our collection. The Coast News issues span the 1940s to 1980s documenting some of the most significant social and technological changes in BC […]
Traveling in Style
Posted on Jul 06, 2012 by slindber
Perhaps we’ve just been overexposed to Canadian Pacific’s historic promotional material, but enjoying a fine meal while glorious views of Stoney Creek and the Selkirks rush by to the clickity-clack of the railroad ties sure sounds enticing. This section of mountainous track and bridges between Field and Revelstoke was an engineering marvel of its day, […]
