Summaries of Talks and Field Trips - 1966 to 1970
Glimpses of the Past through description, related books and internet connections
1970
The Spanish Presence on the Northwest Coast
[January 28, 1970 (VCM) Tomas Bartroli]
(see December 4, 1941 entry)
The Street Railwaymen’s Strike of 1918 in Vancouver
[February 25, 1970 (VCM) Patricia Roy]
(see Patricia Roy’s Ph.D. History thesis, “The British Columbia Electric Railway Company, 1897-1928; a British company in British Columbia.”)
The History and Growth of the Insurance Business in Vancouver
[March 25, 1970 (VCM) Arthur Peacey]
Vancouver’s Architecture: Then and Now
[April 6, 1970 (Holiday Inn) Mr. H. Kalman]
By conducting scheduled walking tours of heritage areas of historical buildings, citizens will become informed about the threats to it by re-development.
The History of the Narcotics Traffic in Vancouver
[April 22, 1970 (VCM) Joseph Lawrence]
(see January 22, 2004)
Fraser River Cruise
[June 13, 1970 (Field Trip on MV Tamoure)]
A cruise up the Fraser River to Mission Bridge can not only reveal early sites along the river but also the large volume of shipping that courses the river.
John Morton: Greenhorn
[September 23, 1970 (VCM) Rev. Bruce Woods]
John Morton was one of the three ‘greenhorns’ who staked the first claim in Vancouver’s West End in the 1860s. (see The Greater Vancouver Book, 830-31)
The Keefers: Engineers and Entrepreneurs
[October 28, 1970 (VCM) James Morton]
The Keefers, a pioneering family, were associated with the Vancouver Water Works Company, the Vancouver Electric Illuminating Company and the Canadian Pacific Railway. Keefer street is named after the family. (see The Greater Vancouver Book, 825)
The Historical Development of Radio in Vancouver
[November 25, 1970 (VCM) David Savage]
Radio began in Vancouver in the early 1920s and became a part of the city’s life. Many broadcasters also became well known within the city. (see CBC Archives for “The Carson Family” on CBC Farm Broadcast; The Greater Vancouver Book, 424-26; see also http://www.vancouverhistory.ca/archives_rrobinson.htm)
1969
The Chinese Contribution to Vancouver’s Development
[January 27, 1969 (VMM) William Willmott]
Vancouver became a collection place for Chinese labourers who had worked on the Railway, mines and canneries. In spite of riots in 1887 and 1907 that grew out of fear of cheap Chinese labour taking over European jobs and consequental exclusionary leglisation, the Chinese developed a robust settlement in the city. They have excelled at all levels of the city’s development. (see William Willmott’s Economic organization in Chinese society, Standford University Press, 1972; Encyclopedia of British Columbia, 126-27; see also http://www.virtualvancouver.com/chinatown.html)
Missions and Indians in 19th century British Columbia
[February 24, 1969 (VMM) UBC senior history students]
Gastown Revisited
[March 24, 1969 (VMM) David Spearing]
Originally the heart of old Vancouver, Gastown deteriorated until the 1960’s when a group of entrepreneurs and heritage minded people decided to save what they could. Today it is a tourist area within the city. (see Encylopedia of British Columbia, 282; see also http://www.gastown.org/history/)
A Yugoslav in Vancouver
[April 28, 1969 (VMM) Marya Hardman]
Westminster Abbey, Mission City, BC
[June 28, 1969 (Field Trip)]
From Abbotsford to Zymoetz
[September 22, 1969 (VMM) G. P. V. Akrigg]
(see G. P. V. & Helen Akrigg’s 1,001 Place Names of B. C., Discovery Press, 1969)
Britannia’s British Columbia The Royal Navy and the Fraser River Gold Rush
[October 27, 1969 (VMM) Barry Gough]. (see Barry M. Gough’s Gold Rush, Grolier, 1983; and Gunboat frontier: British maritime authority and the Northwest Coast Indians, 1846-1890, UBC Press, 1984)
Growing up in Vancouver in the ’90’s
[November 24, 1969 (VMM) Edward K. De Beck]
1968
The Banning of a Book in BC
[January 22, 1968 (VMM) Dr. Charles Humphries]
The Historian’s Progress
[February 26, 1968 (VMM) Stull Holt]
The historian can go through various pitfalls endangering his/her advance on the long and difficult path to truth.
Readings from the Papers – 1890 ones
[April 6, 1968 (AGM at Holiday Inn) Frank Hardwick]
The Rise and Fall of Steam Transportation in the Kootenays
[April 22, 1968 (VMM) Ted Affleck]
British Columbia once had a vast array of steam-powered paddled wheelers that plied the lakes and rivers of the province. (see Edward L. Affleck’s Affleck’s list of sternwheelers plying the inland waters of British Columbia, 1858-1980, Alexander Nicolls Press, 1992; and Shipwrecks of the West Kootenay District, B. C., Underwater Archaeology Society of British Columbia, 2000; and Settlement and development of the Kootenay Lake outlet area, author, 1987)
Whatcom Museum of History and Art
[June 15, 1968 (Field Trip to Bellingham)]
(see http://www.whatcommuseum.org/)
The Stranger’s View of British Columbians
[September 23, 1968 (VMM) Prof. Gordon Elliott]
Insight into local history can be gained by reading the views and judgments passed by visiting strangers.
The French-Canadians of Maillardville
[October 28, 1968 (VMM) G. Sylvester]
In 1909, Asian workers were replaced when Fraser River Sawmills imported 150 workers from Quebec. More followed and a settlement developed around the local church, the priest for which was Rev. Edmond Maillard. Today, it is part of the city of Coquitlam. (see Valda Vidners & Donald Luxton’s Heritage Maillardville: report, prepared by Foundation Group Designs Ltd, District of Coquitlam, 1986; Société Maillardville’s 75ieme anniversaire de foundation programme souvenir, 1909-1904, Maillardville, Columbie Britannique, Société Maillardville-Uni, 1984)
The Swedes in Vancouver
[November 28, 1968 (VMM) Irene Howard]
(see Irene Howard’s Vancouver’s Swenskar: A History of the Swedish Community in Vancouver, Vancouver Historical Society, 1970)
1967
The American West and British Columbia after 1846
[January 23, 1967 (VMM) Dr. Joseph A. Lawrence]
Teaching History in Schools
[February 27, 1967 (VMM) Edith Deyell, Gerald Walsh, J. Mulholland]
Historic Sites of the Vancouver Area
[March 27, 1967 (VMM) Robin Brammall]
(see http://www.vancouver.worldweb.com/SightsAttractions/HistoricSitesInterpretiveCentres/)
The Crystal Palace – 1851
[April 24, 1967 (VMM) John Raybould]
(see http://www.victorianstation.com/palace.html)
Cowichan Valley Forest Museum – Duncan, B. C.
[June 17, 1967 (Annual Field Trip)]
The Cowichan Valley Forest Museum is one of the outstanding forest history museums in North America, with a collection of logging equipment, tools and railway engines used in the logging camps on Vancouver Island.
Seattle, Vancouver and the Klondike
[September 25, 1967 (VMM) Dr. Norbert Macdonald]
Both Seattle and Vancouver owe their greatest early expansion to the Klondike Gold Rush (1898-1900). (see Norbert MacDonald’s Distant neighbours: a comparative history of Seattle and Vancouver, University of Nebraska Press, 1987)
Aspects of a Political Career
[October 23, 1967 (VMM) Howard Green]
Hon. Howard Green, a member of the Progressive Conservative party, was first elected to the House of Commons in the general election of 1935 and served as an M. P. until 1963. He served as Minister of Public Works, Secretary of State for External Affairs, and headed the Canadian delegation to the U.N. General Assembly 1959-62. (see Encylopedia of British Columbia, 303; see also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Charles_Green)
Settlement Patterns in BC History
[November 27, 1967 (VMM) Helen Akrigg]
(see G. P. V. & Helen Akrigg’s 1001 British Columbia place names, Discovery Press, 1970; and British Columbia chronicle, 1847-1876, gold and colonists, Discovery Press, 1977; Angus Gunn’s British Columbia; landforms and settlement, Smith Lithograph, 1968)
1966
A Geologist on the Last Frontier
[January 24, 1966 (VMM) Dr. M. Y. Williams]
Southampton: history of a delinquent earl
[February 28, 1966 (VMM) G. P. V. Akrigg]
(see G. P. V. Akrigg’s Shakespeare and the Earl of Southampton, Harvard University Press, 1968; and Jacobean Pageant: or, The Court of King James I, Havard University Press, 1962)
A Cariboo Round-up
[March 1966 (VMM) Paul St. Pierre]
(see CBC archives “Cariboo Country,”; Paul St. Pierre’s Boss of the Namko Drive, McGraw-Hill Ryerson, c.1965; and Breaking Smith’s Quarter Horse, Ryerson, 1966; Gordon R. Elliott’s The Journal of Norman Lee, 1898, which is the account of a cattle drive from the Chilcotin country to Teslin Lake by the Telegraph Trail, Robert and Felicite Reid, 1959)
Legends of BC as seen through totem poles
[April 25, 1966 (VMM) Dr. S. W. A. Gunn]
(see Sivan William Aram Gunn’s A complete guide to the totem poles in Stanley Park, Vancouver, B. C., W. E. G. McDonald, 1965; Marius Barbeau’s Totem Poles, National Museum of Canada, 1950; see also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Totem_poles)
Hastings Mill
[June 11, 1966 (Field Trip) Unveiling of VHS commissioned sculpture]
The Origin and Rise of the Labour Movement in British Columbia
[September 28, 1966 (VMM) Paul Phillips]
The labour movement in British Columbia and Vancouver has always been very active and has gone through several phases to what it is today. (see Paul Phillips’ London School of Economics Ph.D. thesis “Trade Unions in B. C. between the wars”; Encylopedia of British Columbia, 395-398)
Geography of the BC gold rushes, 1858-1866
[October 24, 1966 (VMM) Angus Gunn]
(see Angus Gunn’s British Columbia; landforms and settlement, Smith Lithograph, 1968)
The Northwest Territories – Canada’s Forgotten Attic
[November 28, 1966 (VMM) John Bovey]
(see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northwest_Territories)