Meetings, Special Events and Field Trips

Please note: All events (unless otherwise noted *) are free and open to the public.

Thursday, May 23, 2013 – 7:30 at MoV Who Fed Vancouver? The Hidden History of the Chinese Canadian Food Industry. Speaker: Henry Yu For most of Vancouver's history, 'eating local' was not a luxury but a reality. Discover the little-known history of Chinese farms in the Vancouver area, as told by the farming families themselves in the wonderful film Covered Roots: The History of Vancouver's Chinese Farms, by Alejandro Yoshizawa and Wendy Phung. Meet some of the families interviewed in the film who grew up on the now disappearing farms, including Chinese Canadian Historical Society of BC President Ken Yip. UBC historian Dr. Henry Yu will talk about the hidden history of the Chinese Canadian food industry, and how they were part of the vertically integrated produce distribution industry that included corner grocery stores in every neighbourhood and cooks everywhere from neighbourhood restaurants to Shaughnessy houses to the B.C. Ferries.

Thursday, September 26, 2013 – 7:30 at Museum of Vancouver Deadlines: Obits of Memorable British Columbians Speaker: Tom Hawthorn A good newspaper obituary is more about life than death. Obits about British Columbia’s departed reflect lives of an interesting cast of characters — athletes, authors, warriors, scholars, innovators, trailblazers, writers, boxers, cowboy singers, politicians, and murderers. Their nicknames — Baby Face, Mean Gene, Alberta Slim, Professor Midas, Cougar Lady — hint at lives rich in anecdote. Tom Hawthorn (left) is a reporter and columnist editor who writes for many newspapers and magazines, including the Globe and Mail, Reader’s Digest, and TheTyee.ca. He is also heard on CBC Radio. The Victoria writer is the author of “Deadlines: Obits of Memorable British Columbians,” released by Harbour Publishing.

Thursday, October 24, 2013 – 7:30 at Museum of Vancouver Liquor, Lust and the Law, The Vancouver Penthouse Nightclub Speaker: Aaron Chapman Few Vancouver nightspots evoke such a fabled history as the Penthouse. From the time the Italian immigrant Filipone brothers opened the Vancouver Penthouse Nightclub in 1947, the after hours watering hole on Seymour Street was a place to go and a place in which to be seen. A friendly escape for everyone from world famous entertainers to some of the city’s most notorious, they were welcomed equally within its doors. In the 1970s, the Penthouse became infamous for its exotic dancers, resulting in a colourful history involving vice squads, politicians, judges, con men and members of Vancouver’s underworld, culminating in the murder of Joe Philliponi known as “the Godfather of Seymour Street” in 1983. The first ever book on the Penthouse, Liquor, Lust and the Law uses material kept under wraps for decades and is a unique look at some of Vancouver’s history after dark. Author and speaker, Aaron Chapman, besides being a contributor to a variety of local publications as well as CBC Radio is an emerging voice in the Vancouver historical narrative.

Thursday, November 28, 2013 – 7:30 at Museum of Vancouver History of Theatre in Vancouver Speaker: Jerry Wasserman Most theatre goers within Vancouver are aware of the state of theatre within the period they attend but are perhaps not familiar with the changes that have taken place over the long run. For example, during its years of unbridled civic optimism preceding 1912, theatres and opera houses, mainly for vaudeville, sprang up throughout the young city. Very different was the period after the bruising of WWI in which a retreat into British roots competed with the strong vaudeville influences from American theatre. An explosion of Vancouver and BC based original theatre of the 1970s and 80s reflected a growing confidence of time and place. Vancouver theatre has and will continue to be a moveable feast moving with the times. Jerry Wasserman, an actor and author of several books on Canadian theatre, is currently professor of English and Theatre in the Department of Theatre and Film at the University of British Columbia.

Thursday, January 23, 2014 – 7:30 at Museum of Vancouver Suspect Properties: the Vancouver Origins of the Liquidation of Japanese-Canadian Property, WWII Speaker: Jordon Stanger-Ross When people of Japanese origins were uprooted from British Columbia's west coast in 1942, they were assured that Canada's Custodian of Enemy Property would "protect and preserve" their homes and farms for the duration of the war. By the spring of 1943, however, the government was hastily selling all Japanese property, including almost 2,000 parcels of real estate. What had changed? Were the assurances of 1942 deliberate lies? Was the liquidation of property part of an attempt by racist British Columbians to rid the province of the Japanese, once and for all? Racial ideology interwove with ideas of neighbourhood and property to convince bureaucrats that they had defensible grounds for liquidation. The policy, derived from complicated and synthetic logic, was not one based entirely on racial hatred. Jordon Stanger-Ross, author of numerous publications on ethnic relations in North America, is an Associate Professor of Canadian history in the Faculty of humanities, University of Victoria.

Thursday, February 27, 2014 – 7:30 at Museum of Vancouver Empire of Ice: The Rise and Fall of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association, 1911-1926 Speaker: Craig H. Bowlsby Vancouver’s only Stanley Cup, won by the Vancouver Millionaires in 1915, was brought about by the foresight, inventiveness and organization of the hockey-playing Patrick brothers. The Patricks achieved this by founding the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA) in 1911 and constructing artificial ice arenas in Vancouver and Victoria. The PCHA also brought in the first American teams - Seattle, Portland and Spokane - to fight for the Stanley Cup. Further, their new rules modernized professional hockey and forced a faster game before the Association’s bizarre plummet in 1926. Consequently, the story of the PCHA has become an important part of the hockey story today. All Vancouver hockey fans will find this a fascinating talk. Craig H. Bowlsby, an avid hockey fan, is author of Empire of Ice: The Rise and Fall of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association, 1911-1926, Vancouver: Knights of Winter Publishing, 2012.

Thursday, March 27, 2014 – 7:30 at Museum of Vancouver Image of Vancouver through time Speaker: Jason Vanderhill Vancouver lends itself to images since it was created in such a striking natural environment. But Vancouver has a variety of images depending on their origin. The early Vancouver Improvement Company had images for future development that competed with those of the Canadian Pacific Railway. The CPR created its Opera House to evoke an image of sophistication. During WWI, images were decidedly that of a supplicant supporting the motherland. Developers continued to present their vision of the city through Expo 86 and the city’s image became different during the Olympics. Artists have painted different images of the city as have writers. Jason Vanderhill, an internet promoter of Vancouver through his Vancouver is Awesome site, has for years gathered a variety of images which reflect the complexity of the city.

Thursday, April 24, 2014 – 7:30 at Museum of Vancouver The History of Art and Artists in Vancouver Speaker: Gary Sim Since Vancouver was founded in 1886, it has had resident visual artists who have interpreted and presented the city to the rest of the world. Many are familiar with the more contemporary Jack Shadbolt, Toni Only, Gordon Smith or even Mildred Valley Thornton. However, few are aware of Vancouver surveyor Lauchlin Hamilton’s early watercolours, or museum curator William Ferris’s painting of Coal Harbour replete with Hawaiian Rancherie. From the beginning, Vancouver’s narrative has been captured in drawings, paintings, prints, and photographs, but most of the artists and their work have faded from our memory into the mists of time. Fortunately for us, Gary Sim has managed to bring to light the names and works of the artists who called Vancouver their home or who captured it in passing. Our speaker, Gary Sim, is an artist, print maker, researcher and publisher. He is very familiar with the Vancouver art scene having chronicled 16,000 artists who exhibited throughout BC from the 1700s to today.

Thursday, May 22, 2014 – 7:30 at Museum of Vancouver The Story of the Vancouver Maritime Museum Speaker: Simon Robinson, Executive Director Serving over 100,000 visitors a year since it opened in 1959, Vanier Park’s Vancouver Maritime Museum is one of the city’s gems. Its role has been to educate the public through its rich collection of models, charts, historic records and artifacts. The vast range of artifacts within the museum include Captain Vancouver’s Arnold 176 chronometer, the RCMP vessel St. Roch, a vast collection of ship models and the figurehead from the Empress of Japan. Outdoors, there is Heritage Harbour with its floating outdoor classic and historic vessels and on land the NASA undersea research vessel Ben Franklin and the boiler from the steamship Beaver. The story of the Museum is one of acquisitions, adventures, educating the public and ups and downs over its 55 year history. Come and hear about the Museum’s past, present and very bright future.

Thursday, September 25, 2014 – 7:30 at Museum of Vancouver French Canadians in British Columbia Speaker: Jean Barman The fur trade on the Pacific Slopes from the end of the eighteenth to the middle of the nineteenth century brought with it the French language as the lingua franca of everyday commerce. The historic predominance of the language is revealed by the many French designations to geographic features as well as family names within First Nations communities. Yet, the predominance of the language is not commonly known as the French Canadian employees, largely illiterate, did not leave first-person narratives thus depriving subsequent generations of the French fact. Even though historians such as Father Adrian Gabriel Morice wrote extensively of the French Canadian experience and even today considerable efforts are being made to reintroduce French as a functioning language, visibility remains low. Today, French speakers comprise less than 2% of the British Columbia population. Speaker Jean Barman is one of British Columbia’s best known historians. Her latest work is French Canadians, Furs, and Indigenous women: the Pacific Northwest reconsidered.

History Related Events Calendar This calendar shows upcoming history-related events sponsored by other organizations. Click to view » Please note: This information is provided only as a public service by the VHS which is not responsible for the content.