Summaries of Talks and Field Trips - 1946 to 1950

Glimpses of the Past through description, related books and internet connections

1950

Birth and development of the town of Ladner
[January 24, 1950, Thomas E. Ladner]
(see Leon J. Ladner’s The Ladners of Ladner: by covered wagon to the welfare state, Vancouver: Mitchell Press, 1972 )

Governorship of Richard Blanshard
[February 21, 1950, Ronald M. Sweeney]
England born Richard Blanshard (1817-94) was Vancouver Island’s first governor, 1850-51. His term was disastrous for he had no place to live and no salary; as well, he had no authority over the HBC. He returned to England to live.

Some Irish figures in colonial days
[March 21, 1950, Dr. Margaret A. Ormsby]
(see Margaret A. Ormsby’s British Columbia: a history, Macmillan, 1958)

Ways and wars of early colonial days
[April 25, 1950, Bruce A. McKelvie]
(see B. A. McKelvie’s Tales of Confict, Vancouver Daily Province, 1950; Robin Fisher’s Contact and Conflict: Indian-European relations in British Columbia, 1774-1890, UBC Press, 1977)

Memoirs of the pioneer days of western Canada
[May 23, 1950, Capt. Charles W. Cates]

Hands across the continent
[October 17, 1950, Willard Ireland]

Canada at mid-century
[November 14, 1950, Dr. Walter N. Sage]

Prehistoric anthropoids and prehistoric man
[December 12, 1950, AGM, Erna C. von Engel-Baiersdorff]
Years of archaeological and now DNA research indicate that humans as we know today, originated in the continent of Africa. New finds are being discovered almost daily putting science in opposition to traditional cultural and religious belief systems.
(see Richard E. Leakey’s The Origin of humankind, Basic Books, c.1994; see also http://www.historylink101.com/prehistory.htm;
http://www.cartage.org.lb/)

1949

The magnetic telegraph comes to BC
[February 22, 1949, Miss Corday Mackay]

Pioneer priests in British Columbia
[March 22, 1949, Rev. George Forbes]
(see George Forbes’ The History of St. Peter’s Parish (Oblate Fathers), New Wesminster, BC, 1860-1960, np. 1960; see also Vincent J. McNally’s The Lord’s distant vineyard: a history of the Oblates and the Catholic community in British Columbia, University of Alberta Press, c.2000)

Songs of the Cariboo
[May 10, 1949, Herbert Hughes]
From the time of the gold rush, many songs eminated from the Cariboo.

The Royal Navy at Esquimalt
[October 11, 1949, Dr. Gilbert E. Tucker]
Derived from the Salish word meaning “place of gradually shoaling water”, the area was first used by non-native peoples in 1843 as part of the Puget Sound Agricultural Company establishment and from 1846 as a naval harbour. From 1865, it replaced Valparaiso as the British naval headquarters in the eastern Pacific. (see http://www.navalandmilitarymuseum.org/info_pages/Naden.html)

Some aspects of the law in early BC
[November 22, 1949, AGM, D. A. McGregor]

1948

The development of the eastern Fraser Valley
[January 20, 1948, George B. White]
(see entry for February 1947)

The development of the Okanagan
[February 24, 1948, Dr. Margaret A. Ormsby]
(see Encyclopedia of British Columbia, 512-13)

Vancouver’s early days
[April 13, 1948, C. W. McBain]
(see Chuck Davis’ Vancouver Then and Now: A Photographic Essay, 2001)

Prehistoric man in North and South America
[June 1, 1948, Henry Castillou]
(see http://www.nativemaps.org/map_gallery.html)

Traces of prehistoric man in BC
[October 26, 1948, Henry Castillou]
(see http://www.nativemaps.org/map_gallery.html)

The earliest days of Prince Rupert
[November 30, 1948, AGM, R. W. Pillsbury]
Prince Rupert, on Kaien Island, was selected as the Pacific terminus for the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway but never grew to its potential, becoming a fishing centre instead. The site was cleared from 1906 and it was officially incorporated in 1910 amidst scandal of improper land grants. Today it continues as a growing port. (see W. B. M. Hicks’ Hay’s Orphan: the story of the Port of Prince Rupert, Prince Rupert Port Authority, c.2003;)

1947

Beginning of land settlement in the Fraser Valley
[February 1947, John E. Gibbard]
(see Encyclopedia of British Columbia, 273; http://www.fraservalleyguide.com/History.html)

Early days of North Vancouver
[March 1947, C. Burns]
(see Henry Ewert’s Perfect little street car system. North Vancouver 1906-1947, North Vancouver Museum and Archives Commission, 2000; see also Patrick O. Hind’s Pacific Great Eastern Railway Company: a short history of the North Shore subdivision, 1914-1928, North Short Archives and Museum Commission, 1999; see also http://www.cherrybouton.com/northvan.html)

The trail of the early Cariboo prospectors
[April 15, 1947, Dawson H. Elliott]
(see http://archives.cbc.ca/IDC-1-73-678-3896/politics_economy/trans_canada/clip1; see Robie L. Reid’s Captain Evans of Cariboo: The Presidential address to the Vancouver Section of the British Columbia Historical Association, October 3, 1938, BCHQ, 2: 4, 1938)

The panorama of the north
[May 8, 1947, Major-General W. W. Foster]

The work of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada
[October 14, 1947, Dr. Walter N. Sage]
(see Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada, fonds for Charles W.
Humphries, Margaret Prang, Walter Sage & Margaret Ormsby, UBC Archives;
see also http://www.pc.gc.ca/clmhc-hsmbc/index_E.asp)

The growth of marine commerce in the seaports of British Columbia
[November 18, 1947, AGM, Capt. Charles W. Cates]
(see Charles W. Cates’ Tidal Action in British Columbia Waters, Richardson Press, 1952)

The romance of two rivers: The Columbia and the Kootenay
[December 9, 1947, Norman Hacking]

1946

Newspaper history
[January 17, 1946, Roy Brown]
(see entry for February 1, 1944.)

Romantic Cariboo, BC – Government Travel Bureau film
[March 5, 1946, Louis LeBourdais]

Vancouver’s earliest days
[April 8, 1946, Helen R. Boutilier]

Contemporary British opinion on the Oregon crisis, 1843-46
[May 7, 1946, Willard Ireland]
When the British American Convention of 1818 drew the international British North America [Canada]/US border to the Rocky Mountains, it left division of the greater Pacific Northwest in question until the 1840’s when the Oregon area began to fill with American overlanders. Although Britain proposed the border along the Columbia River, it gave in to US pressure and the line continued along the 49th parallel until Vancouver Island.
(see Thomas Falconer’s The Oregon Question: or, a statement of the British claims to the Oregon Territory, in opposition to the pretentions of the government of the United States of America, S. Clarke, 1845; see also Henry Castor’s Fifty-four-forty or fight!: a showdown between America and England settles the Oregon Question, F. Watts, c. 1970; see also http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1029.html)

Ghosts walk on the Pacific coast
[October 1, 1946, Rev. A. E. Cooke]
(see http://www.tourcanada.com/wctrail.htm)

A sojourn in the Cariboo, 1910-15
[November 1946, AGM, Rev. William Stott]

The story of Vancouver’s waterfront
[December 1946, Capt. Charles W. Cates]
(see Charles W. Cates’ Tidal Action in British Columbia Waters, Richardson Press, 1952; F. W. Howay’s Early shipping in Burrard Inlet, 1863-1870; see also http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/ctyclerk/archives/refguides/g_marit.htm)