Florida State University’s Special Collections presents A Century of Seasons: The History of Florida State Athletics.  Visitors are invited to explore the history of Florida State athletics, which spans over ten decades, from the turn of the century to the modern day.  Beginning in 1905 and ending in 1947 Tallahassee’s campus was a women’s college, then known as Florida State Women’s College (F.S.C.W.).  These forty-years were marked by energetic school spirit, enthusiastic intramural rivalries and vibrant traditions.   A Century of Seasons highlights this age of intramural competition between Odd and Even classes with images, documents and artifacts.

F.S.C.W.’s 1914 intramural basketball teams compete as fans watch from the sidelines.

Basketball was phenomenally popular during the F.S.W.C years and, arguably, the most anticipated event of the year was the Thanksgiving Day competition.  Photographs of the game and the athletes tell the story of this highly anticipated event and the women who competed in it.  The exhibit also includes photographs and artifacts documenting minor and non-traditional sports played on campus over this period, including archery and an aquatic sport known as prelo.  Wooden dumbbells from the early twentieth century have survived and are displayed next to an image of the tumbling class putting them to use.

A collection of student scrapbooks, which contain unique photographs and ephemera from sporting events and provide a fascinating look at the way athletics, affected the daily lives of students.  Each of the scrapbooks displayed portrays the personality of its owner and the collected photographs, newspaper clippings and ephemera with the scrapbooks shows a unique perspective on the athletes and fans who attended the university when it was yet young.

A Century of Seasons: The History of Florida State Athletics is open from 10am-6pm in the Strozier Exhibit Room until February 2014.

Earlier this year, Jessie Kratz was appointed Historian of the National Archives—our first!  Jessie has been with the Archives nearly 15 years—most recently on staff at the Center for Legislative Archives.

Over the years, many staff members have informally filled that role in various capacities and I want to thank them for recognizing the importance of our own history.  Ironically, the National Archives, the repository of the nation’s history, had no historian of its own.  I have come to appreciate the work that the historians across the Federal government do and am so pleased that we join the ranks of those Agency and Congressional historians.

Upon accepting the job, Jessie’s first priority was to create the National Archives History Office to ensure our agency’s history is retained. She is working to make sure the official records created by the National Archives are preserved and accessible for research.

“What is Past is Prologue”, inscribed on Future (1935, Robert Aitken) located on the northeast corner of the National Archives Building in Washington, D.C. Photo courtesy of user: Salticidae on Flickr

Jessie’s office will also be accepting non-record material— this includes memoirs, collections of original photographs and letters, memorabilia, diaries, maps and other historical documents that help tell the story of the National Archives but would not otherwise be preserved in the official records of the National Archives. Please contact her if … [ Read all ]

In recent months, it seems that team mascots have stolen the media spotlight. Whether it be the Washington Redskins or the Amherst College Lord Jeffs, mascots and their connotations have become a hot topic. In light of the recent debate surrounding the Amherst College mascot (see this article in The Amherst Student), I thought it might be interesting to explore the man at the center of the maelstrom: Lord Jeffery Amherst, Commander in Chief of British Forces in North America during the French and Indian War, and according to some, the Adolf Hitler of the 18^th century.  Currently, the Amherst College Archives and Special Collections at Frost Library has some five boxes of original historical documents and artifacts related to Jeffery Amherst and his descendants.  Here are 7 interesting facts about Jeffery Amherst, taken straight from the documents:

1)      Jeffery Amherst liked to travel.

Okay, this might be a slight exaggeration, but he was most assuredly a well-traveled man. From the forests of Germany to the cities of France and our fair shores here in North America, Jeffery Amherst traveled around the globe in service to king and country.

Letter addressed from Crown Point, New York, regarding 14 Canadian soldiers

 He served in many different wars during his lifetime, including the War of the Austrian Succession, the Jacobite Uprising, the Seven Years’ War, the American War of Independence, and the French Revolutionary Wars.

Letter addressed from Whitehall, London, later in Amherst’s career

Amherst was recalled to service as Commander-in-Chief of the British Forces in 1793, at the advanced age of 76, and served until a year before his death. Here are a few letters written by Amherst from different locations, including Buxtehude (Germany),  Crown Point (New York), and Whitehall (London, England):

Letter addressed from Buxtehude, Germany, early in Amherst’s career

2)      If Jeffery Amherst liked to travel, his first wife most certainly did not.

In a letter to his sister-in-law, Jane Dalison, Lady Amherst,  Jeffery Amherst’s younger brother William shares the news that his brother has received a commission from King George II appointing him “General Commander in Chief of all America.” According to William, if his sister-in-law “could conquer your dislike of water, you might be a Queen there, but I know your little ambition.”

Jeffery Amherst, “Commander in Chief of all America”

Note where the wax seal tore a hole through the center of the letter.

3)      Jeffery Amherst was often depicted in his military uniform, including, yes, an actual suit of plate armour. Here are a few of the different caricatures and engravings of Amherst:

4)      Amherst had numerous Native American allies, including members from the Oneida, Onondaga and Caughnawaga tribes in northern New York Colony.

He appointed William Johnson as British Superintendent of Indian Affairs in the northeast, and along with Johnson, consulted with his Native American allies on a regular basis. As seen in the following letter, Amherst discusses a recent conference with the Oneidas and Onondagas and considers a future conference with Native American tribes in New England. While Amherst displays a condescending attitude towards Native Americans in general and disapproves of selling alcohol to them, he does display a surprising sense of fairness regarding the treatment of Britain’s Native American allies. In the letter, he approves of bringing Native American land grievances before the colony’s governor and even offers to personally speak to the governor. While this does not negate the now-famous series of letters sent to Colonel Bouquet in Philadelphia from June 23rd to July 19th, 1763, in which Amherst mused, “Could it not be contrived to send the small pox among the disaffected tribes of Indians?”, it appears that Jeffery Amherst had a very different opinion when it came to the British Native American allies compared to the Native American tribes allied with his enemies, the French. This perspective of allies versus enemies may provide a more nuanced picture of Amherst’s thoughts on Native Americans.

“You did certainly right to lay their complaint before the Lt. Governor, who, I doubt not, will address any grievances of this kind.”

“I am hopfull [to] put an end to all complaints arising from the sale of this Destructive Liquor.”

5)      Amherst had interesting allies and friends, including many people in high places and even some he may have later regretted.

Perhaps one of Amherst’s most interesting allies was Thomas Hancock, Boston merchant and book seller. As you may have already guessed, Thomas Hancock was the uncle of John Hancock, prominent signer of the Declaration of Independence and famous Patriot during the American Revolution. Besides his famous signature, John Hancock was known as one of the wealthiest men in the thirteen colonies. Hancock had the great luck to inherit his fortune from his wily uncle, who took advantage of lucrative shipping contracts with the British Army and kept in regular contact with the Army’s Commander in Chief.

Letter from King George III to “Our Right Trusty & Welle Loved Councillor General Jeffery Lord Amherst”

Later in his career, Jeffery Amherst was promoted to Commander in Chief of all British Forces during the French Revolutionary Wars, a position that entitled him to a seat on the Prime Minister’s Cabinet. During this period, Amherst was stationed at St. James’s Square, London, the seat of government in England. Many of his later letters are addressed from St. James’s Square, and several of the letters in the Jeffery Amherst Collection in the Amherst Archives and Special Collections are from King George III of Great Britain.

The cover of one of Amherst’s order books – note the doodle of a soldier wearing a coat with buttons on the right side.

6)       Jeffery Amherst was obsessively well-organized. While stationed in Ghent, Belgium during the War of Austrian Succession from 1740-1748, Jeffery Amherst kept a field diary in which he made daily, personal notations. In this flip-style journal, Amherst recorded such things as troop movements and marches, general daily orders, watch schedules and supply requirements.  On occasion, he even went so far as to include what could be considered an 18th century doodle.

Another order book, written from Ghent, Belgium, 1742-1743

“May 19, 1743 Sunday”

“May 20, 1743 Monday”

7)       If Jeffery Amherst never visited Amherst, Massachusetts, he was a major property owner in neighboring New York. In addition to his estate in Kent, England, which Amherst called “Montreal” in honor of his victory over the French in 1760, Amherst was gifted “twenty two thousand five hundred and forty acres of land, and the usual allowance for highways” in thanks for his service by the Colony of New York. According to the official land grant, Amherst’s property was measured from a rather precarious starting point, namely a “Birch Tree, marked No. III”. From this beginning, the property was then measured in “chains and links”.

“Which said tract or parcel of land so set out for the said Sir Jeffery Amherst begins at a Birch Tree”

ACC Championship ring from 1996

Excitement is in the air at Florida State! With the Seminoles finishing their regular season undefeated, heading to the ACC Championship Game on Saturday, and favored to play in the BCS National Championship, FSU fans have renewed pride after what some call the “Lost Decade.”

The Atlantic Coast Conference, or ACC, was created in 1953, and its charter members included Clemson, Duke, Maryland, North Carolina, North Carolina State, South Carolina, and Wake Forest. FSU didn’t join the conference until 1991, but immediately began to dominate the competition and have been ACC champions 13 times, making the Seminoles the most victorious team in the conference.

Championship rings have been a tradition in America since the 1920s. Because a sports team is only awarded one trophy, players, coaches, and staff are presented rings as a token of their victory. Prior to rings, teams were often given pocket watches or pins.

ACC champion rings that were presented to President D’Alemberte. Years left to right: 2000, 1995, 1997.

FSU’s Heritage Protocol is fortunate to have accessioned FSU President Sandy D’Alemberte’s championship rings from his tenure from 1994-2003. President D’Alemberte’s time as a president is synchronous to the Seminole’s reign as ACC Champs.

We here at Special Collections don’t have a crystal ball (well, on second thought, we might have one in our collection somewhere!), but sure hope that after Saturday the Seminoles have another ring to add to their collection.

Nearly forty years ago, Walter James Miller, host of WNYC’s “Reader’s Almanac” program, conducted four interviews with Kurt Vonnegut.

The first one took place on June 30, 1974, soon after Vonnegut had published Breakfast of Champions, the follow-up to his most famous and probably most accomplished novel, Slaughterhouse Five. After years of obscurity in the 1950s and early 1960s, Vonnegut now found himself one of the handful of most-talked about writers in America. This interview reveals him at the top of his game—confidently proclaiming the novelist’s ability to “make up new myths that people will believe,” easily dealing out anecdotes about Twain, Hemingway, and James Jones, freely moving from topic to topic with élan and self-deprecating humor. It’s an impressive performance, especially considering the fact that Vonnegut’s personal life was just then coming apart under the intense pressures of divorce, loneliness, the wild admiration and expectations of millions of readers, and the persistent voices of some critics denouncing him as a hack.

Miller’s interview begins by setting up a question about Breakfast of Champions being a retelling of the Book of Job, with car salesman Dwayne Hoover as the sufferer of all sorts of undeserved catastrophes. But when Vonnegut begins to talk, it’s not about Job but about the irony of his teaching students how to write conventionally, despite his being such an experimental writer. Next, Vonnegut proposes the idea that the conventional presentation of “major” and “minor” characters in fiction is unrealistic, and probably the result of our persistent belief in the class system—the common notion that some people are just inherently less important than others. Next, he theorizes that our brains don’t just see people and fictional characters in a faulty way but reality itself when we imagine it’s divided into past, present, and future. Finally, he explains that as a writer he wants to comfort people with the idea that their loved ones who have died are really still alive—in what we call the past. So it seems that Vonnegut in his round-about way has answered the initial question about the relationship of Breakfast of Champions to the Book of Job after all: Job could have been comforted over the loss of his family if he’d known about the idea of the simultaneity of past, present, and future presented in Slaughterhouse-Five and Breakfast of Champions. Presumably, in that way, Job’s wife and children could have been rescued from their Biblical fate as minor characters.

And this rollercoaster ride of ideas happens in the first few minutes of the interview. Listen for yourself to learn what happens in the rest of the conversation. As the punch line of one of Vonnegut’s favorite jokes puts it: “Keep your hat on—we may end up miles from here!”

Special thanks to Mary Hume, Donald Farber and Ana Maria Allessi at Harper Collins for making the release of these broadcasts possible.

Walter James Miller was affiliated with the NYU Program in Liberal Studies.

Athletics at Florida State College and Florida State College for Women had always been popular, but after the inception of FSU, sports exploded. Now able to have varsity teams because of the addition of men to the student body, the Tallahassee past time of Seminole fanaticism began. In the exhibit A Century of Seasons: The History of Florida State Athletics, photos, artifacts and ephemera from FSU’s favorite sports teams are on display, as well as forgotten athletic groups like Tarpon Club, the women’s synchronized swimming club, and Gymkana, FSU’s premier gymnastics show troupe.

A Century of Seasons traces the history of FSU athletics, like the incredible growth of FSU football. The excitement was palpable in 1947 when after a 40 year hiatus, FSU hosted its first football game against the Stetson Hatters. While the first season was a dismal bust (the Seminole squad lost all five of their games), the love for football had been instilled in FSU students and Tallahassee citizens alike. It didn’t take long for Florida State football to develop into a powerhouse team: winning the Cigar Bowl in 1950, their first undefeated season in 1950, starting in the top 20 in 1971, and the decades of winning teams under the coaching of Bobby Bowden.

A Century of Seasons also highlights the illustrious career of the Tarpon Club, FSU’s oldest club. The synchronized swimming team was created in the 1920s, originally with the name Life Saving Corps. The club hosted exhibitions that would demonstrate form swimming, figure swimming, speed swimming, lifesaving techniques, diving, and canoe handling. The group adopted the name Tarpon Club in 1937, and developed into a highly-regarded club that garnered awards from national organizations, featured in Hollywood films, and eagerly anticipated water pageants. Tarpon Club disbanded in 1994 and left Florida State with a unique and well-loved history.

A Century of Seasons: The History of Florida State Athletics is open from 10am-6pm in the Strozier Exhibit Room until February 2014.

Imagine a newly constructed hospital with room for over 300 occupants, sitting idle and standing empty in a time of great need.

By the mid-1920s the Bronx Hospital, originally founded in 1911, had outgrown its original facility and began construction on a state-of-the art hospital at Fulton Avenue and 169th Street. The new hospital was a “monument to the medical profession” and boasted the latest in medical technology and hospitable accommodations for patients: “Everything is in readiness for rendering service, the humanitarian service of saving lives and ministering to the needs of the ill and injured. Every room, every utility compartment, every laboratory, every scientific device of proved merit, in fact, every needed facility of modern hospitalization stands ready to become useful for the particular purpose for which it has been conceived, contemplated, planned and constructed.”

The now familiar pink and white building was completed in 1930, but was unable to open until 1932 due to a lack of funds and stood empty and unused except for guided tour groups. In this radio address, Isidor Teitelbaum, a member of the hospital’s Board of Directors, issues an impassioned plea for donations.

In 1962, privately-owned Bronx Hospital joined forces with Lebanon Hospital to become the Bronx-Lebanon Hospital.

The Public Interest Declassification Board (PIDB) recently hosted an open meeting to discuss its recommendations to the President on Transforming the Security Classification System, focusing on declassification prioritization. PIDB continues to advocate for public discussion on the report. This meeting represented opportunities to highlight recommendations from the report, continue the conversation about the current declassification system, and discuss the topics citizens want prioritized for declassification.

The meeting also hosted a panel discussion on “Perspectives on Prioritizing Government Records for Declassification and Public Access,” featuring Stephen Randolph, Historian at the Department of State; Joseph Lambert, Director of Information Management Services at the Central Intelligence Agency; Michael Dobbs, Journalist and Scholar-in-Residence at the Holocaust Museum; and Stephen Aftergood from the Federation of American Scientists.

My opening remarks at the meeting were an opportunity to emphasize the importance of the National Archives’ role in this democratic process, and to highlight the work we are doing to eliminate the declassification backlog and modernize records management practices:

When people have open access to government information, they are able to hold government accountable for its actions. This is an essential part of our democracy. As Thomas Jefferson wrote from Paris in 1789: “whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government…whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on … [ Read all ]

From the December, 1943 WQXR Program Guide:

When you think of interesting approaches to music you think of Mme. Stokowski, whose Layman’s Music Course at Town Hall, New York, has been famous for years. To know why she is so successful in her method, we suggest you listen to her WQXR program every Sunday morning at 10 A.M.

In the Oxford Dictionary, we find the definition of the word high-brow is “adjective and noun, (U.S. slang), (person) of detached intellectual views on politics, etc.”

Unhappily, we have to include great music in that all embracing “etc.,” although there is nothing “intellectually detached” about this art to which the word is so often applied. Definitions of words are not nearly so important as the reasons behind their use. The word “impressionistic” was originally applied by a waggish critic in Paris as a term of ridicule to certain paintings exhibited by a group of artists whose works had been rejected by the reactionary Parisian Academy. In the course of time it became the serious designation of an important school of painting.

The word “high-brow” (strangely adolescent for present-day America) may have been invented by one of those unhappy husbands who found himself more or less obligated to accompany his enthusiastic wife to concerts and operas when his own longings took the direction of vaudeville and musical comedy. There are many such musically uninterested and rebellious males in the United States–perhaps more than in European countries, where parental authority was strong enough in the past to force unwilling little boys to make friends with art music through playing the piano or the violin. In the new world, on the other hand, we allowed the legend to persist that music is an unmanly pursuit.

As far as I can make out, the word “high-brow” in its current connection with music is a synonym for “undesirable.” It is used by some as a term of ridicule, much as the traditional tourist of former times in Europe regarded every language he did not understand as funny. Every world traveler has met such tourists and heard them make feeble jokes about “parley-voo.” Still other people use the word “high-brow” as a term of rejection. Among these we find the aforementioned unhappy husbands whose frame of mind before the ordeal of sitting for an hour-and-a-half on stiff chairs at a symphony concert is probably akin to that of a woman who said (before being taken to a political meeting), “I have a perfectly unprejudiced and unbiased mind. Therefore I am going to listen to what I am firmly convinced is utter rubbish.”

It is amazing how vigorously and tenaciously people who think they cannot understand great art music will resist the possibility of enjoying it!

The most musically unhappy husband I ever knew endured symphony concerts in Boston for twenty-five years and managed to keep his prejudice against them completely intact. Instead of listening to the music, he took refuge (paradoxically enough!) in the “intellectual detachment” of reading the program notes and disagreeing with every word. Once–according to his own account–he turned over two pages instead of one and ‘was sad at the wrong time,” a neat satire on the futility of telling people what they should feel while listening to music!

Perhaps we are at the crossroads where the word “high-brow” will either change its meaning or be dropped altogether. Looking back along the road we have already traveled, we find grave errors committed by professional musicians in what might be called the field of music public relations. People who could not carry a tune were pronounced by them to be tone-deaf and were cast into outer darkness. By the same token people who were not endowed with a singing voice they cared to listen to, or people who did not play an instrument were made to feel that they were rank outsiders. Professional musicians, while constantly stressing performance, neglected the development of intelligent listening.

Peering ahead on the road we must still travel in our changing world, things look very different. The radio and phonograph are doing for music what the invention of printing did for literature. They are making it universally accessible as one of the great experiences of life. The invention of printing would have been of little avail if there had not been the increase in literacy that accompanied it. The wonderful possibilities created by the radio and phonograph demand a musical equivalent of literacy–and everyone who has a real contact with the every-growing public for art music realizes how keen is the demand for such a development of receptive powers. The first efforts in this direction were christened “music appreciation.” This is undoubtedly a misnomer. People can no more be taught to “appreciate” than they can learn how to react emotionally. What is really important is to become aware of the element that “gives sense to sound”–not through association of ideas with things outside of music, but through recognition of the fundamental elements of one of the greatest means of expression of joy, grief, love, anger, and jealousy. Human beings not only experience emotion but have the capacity to express it in one way or another; and when a Shakespeare expresses those same emotions, the inspirational way in which he does it achieves immortality. An appreciation of the way in which musical geniuses express emotion proves that the same thing is true of music. In order to have a complete experience, the listener must react not only emotionally but must also be aware of the magic of the art through which he receives the composer’s message. The listener who has found the road to such musical awareness will have no place in his vocabulary for the word “high-brow.”

Photo: Olga Samaroff-Stokowski circa 1917, Library of Congress.

We have already received many comments from our followers about what topics you would like to see declassified.  Today, we present you with anew  list of topics OLDER than 25 years.

View the List Here:  Older Than 25 Years

Like our first category of topics 25 years old and younger, this list of older topics captures what we heard from Agency declassifiers, experts from the Presidential Libraries and the requester community.  The topics are listed in alphabetical order, not by ranking.

All lists will remain active for comment while the blog is live.  Please continue to make comments on this new list and also any other topics you think are important for prioritization.

Your comments will be posted as soon as possible.  Please review our blog’s Comment and Posting Policy for more details.  Thank you for your continued interest and participation.

Peterson, Roger Tory, and Virginia Marie Peterson. The Audubon Society Baby Elephant Folio: Audubon’s Birds of America. London: Heinemann, 1981.

The Amherst College Archives and Special Collections has an extensive ornithology rare books collection, containing many images of turkeys!

You can see a full listing of volumes from the Richard L. Soffer (Class of 1954) Ornithology Collection.

We also have an Audubon Double Elephant Folio on display in the Archives foyer.  Come check it out!

Happy Thanksgiving from the Archives!

Two hundred years ago on this day, Giambattista Bodoni, the great Italian typographer, died. The Updike Collection includes one of the United States’ best collections of books published by Bodoni, as well as ephemera and a few manuscripts, and we’re going to be celebrating with an exhibition this February (so stay tuned for more information and mark your calendars for February 27th for the opening reception).

Having such a fine Bodoni collection means that in some cases we have multiple copies of items he printed. Why would anyone need more than one, you ask? Here’s an example, with two copies of a 1799 broadside side-by-side:

On the left is a copy with hand-written annotations, in this case possibly by Bodoni himself. On the right is a copy with the emendations called for in the copy on the left. In other words, this is a chance to see a great printer at work. Here are some of the details:

In many cases Bodoni (we’ll just assume that’s who made the correction marks) is indicating letters that need to be replaced, as in the case of the damaged “I” in Austria:

Or the “D” in “Ducum” with the wandering lead at the bottom of its bowl (say that ten times fast) and changes to letter spacing:

Sometimes you’ll have a letter like the “A” not keeping up with the baseline:

Or punctuation that needs to disappear completely (plus a shift closer to the center):

Here’s the full page view (Click for animation):

The devil is in the details.

(And if you find yourself wanting more bookish animated gifts, there’s no place better than the University of Iowa Special Collections tumblr.)

The arguably epic football rivalry between Florida State and near neighboring University of Florida has spanned over five decades.  Although the first game between the two was played in November of 1958, the relationship between the schools can be traced to the first decade of the twentieth-century.

In 1905 the Florida legislature passed the Buckman Act which disbanded Tallahassee’s coeducational Florida State College.  The mandate designated the Tallahassee campus as an all-female school and changed the name to Tallahassee campus to Florida State College for Women while simultaneously establishing an all-male school in Gainesville.  During the next forty years the University of Florida was viewed by many students at F.S.C.W. as their counterpart and many of the students in Tallahassee supported the men’s sports teams in Gainesville.

Newspaper comic from 1966.

Following the Second World War the Tallahassee campus once again became coeducational in order to accommodate returning G.I.s who were seeking a college education and the newly christened Florida State University immediately established its own football team.  It took nearly a decade of negotiation to finally sanction an annual game between the Florida State Seminoles and the University of Florida Gators.

The first twenty years of competition were dominated by The Gators who achieved a nine-game long winning streak beginning in 1968 and ending in 1976.  One of the most controversial showdowns took place in 1966, when a game-winning Seminole pass from the Gators’ 45-yard-line was ruled incomplete despite photographic evidence suggesting otherwise.  The next day the Florida State Flambeau ran headlines announcing a Seminole win, despite the officials’ ruling.

The rivalry became increasingly heated over the following years as Florida State began to even the balance with a four-year streak from 1977 through 1980 then again from 1987 through 1990.  In November of 1994 the Seminoles made an awe-inspiring comeback to tie the Gators who had led 31-3 in the fourth-quarter.  In 2012 the Seminoles put an end to a six-season Gator streak.  The rivalry continues this month as the 4-7 Gators meet the 11-0 Seminoles in Gainesville on November 30th.

Timeline of FSU-UF Games

In 1973, the book collection of the William M. Randall Library of the University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW) reached 100,000 volumes. To celebrate, the library acquired a first edition Huck Finn by Mark Twain (published in 1885) and held a special ceremony. This first edition is in Special Collections.

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There was a great turnout at our annual screening this past Sunday: Reflecting the City screened to a sold-out crowd, and the theatre had to turn away many hopeful theatre-goers in the rush line-up. Fortunately, a handful of reserved or pre-sold seats went unclaimed, and a lucky and patient few were able to get in.

The rush line-up. Photograph by Kristine Aguilar.

Veteran Archives volunteer Kristine Aguilar used photographs from our holdings to design two beautiful posters that were on display in the Vancity Theatre atrium.

Kristine Aguilar and her poster designs. Photograph by Jeffery Chong.

One poster

The other poster

City Archivist Heather Gordon thanked the donors of screened material who were in attendance: Dana Cooper, Anne Denman, Hans Sipma, Gordon Inglis, and Mike Collier. Their donations have enriched the Archives’ holdings and made this screening possible.

Digital Conservator Sue Bigelow explained the signs of deterioration in magnetic media, and the inevitable obsolescence of the technology. The Archives’ solution to save the content is to transfer the tapes to an open source lossless preservation file format.

Sue Bigelow’s preservation talk. Photograph by Jeffery Chong.

Michael Kluckner presented the screening in five segments. “Family Abroad”, from the Douglas S. Scott fonds, featured home movies documenting the lives of a family based in Victoria, New Westminster, and Hong Kong during the 1930s.

Michael Kluckner providing historical commentary. Photograph by Jeffery Chong.

Home movies made in this era were largely the privilege of the wealthy who could afford the expensive film and cameras. If not told, one would never know that these family scenes were taken during the Great Depression.

Still from The Empress of Asia (c. 1930s) Reference code: AM1591-: 2011-089.002.

Similarly, one would never know that there was a war across the Atlantic by viewing the next segment, “Wartime Summer”. Our Outdoor Heritage, made by the Board of Parks and Recreation in 1940, was likely a good distraction from the realities of war-torn Europe. The segment features Vancouver Sun-sponsored swimming lessons, kids’ dress-up days and outdoor recreational activities familiar to all Vancouverites. One of our favourite shots from the ’40s reinforces the diversity Vancouver is known for today: a portrait of young Vancouverites of all cultures smiling together for the camera.

GIF made from Our Outdoor Heritage (1940). Reference code: VPK-S652-: MI-105

“Not Quite Haight-Ashbury” revealed a different social landscape in Vancouver with the Denman family films. These films feature a young family in the 1960s attending activities such as a hippie be-in at Kitsilano Beach and mural painting at the old Vancouver Art Gallery.

Still from Be-In at Kitsilano Beach (c. 1967). Reference code: AM1487-: MI-590.

Also included were excerpts from community-produced videos from the 1970s. V.R.B. Dead or Alive documents a campaign to save the Vancouver Resources Board, a public program that provided social assistance and services to the region. Kitsilano Neighbourhood Improvement Program is about co-op housing in the city.

Still from V.R.B. Dead or Alive (1977). Reference code: AM1323-: LEG181.3.

“Getting Around” focused on the transportation issues in Vancouver and the Lower Mainland. Vancouver Low Cost Street Program, produced by the City Engineering Department in 1971, documents street improvements in urban areas, but in the background one can see the neighbourhood landscapes of Vancouver without curbs. Urban Transportation is a video from the 1970s that discusses the advantages and disadvantages of rapid transit in the Lower Mainland. The excerpt shown made uncanny predictions of many of the social and financial issues that are apparent in today’s transit system and infrastructure.

Still from Urban Transportation (1971). Reference code: AM1487-: 2010-028.2.

Free Wheelin’ and Cycle! were 1990s television shows made for the emerging cycling community in Vancouver. These shows informed viewers about bicycle safety, maintenance, rules of the road, and local trails. Excerpts from Free Wheelin’ focused on the need for safe cycling infrastructure, and excerpts from Cycle! focused on Critical Mass, the controversial bicycle advocacy event.

Critical Mass. Still from Cycle! Show # 3 (1995). Reference code: AM1651-: 2010-025.14.

Bicycle Ride, produced by Hans Sipma, is a time-lapse journey through Vancouver in 1974. Hans mounted a Super 8 camera on the handlebars of his bicycle and traveled the Lions Gate Bridge, the Stanley Park sea wall, Burrard Bridge, industrial Granville Island, and the south shore construction in False Creek.

Still from Bicycle Ride (1974). Reference code: AM1487-: 2012-029.01

The final segment was called “Almost Yesterday”. Trading Post was the Craigslist of Vancouver’s early television era. The show was produced by private television network CHAN-CHEK, and hosted by Ron Morrier. The show invited viewers to call in to trade, sell or buy a variety of their used household items.

Still from Trading Post (1967). Reference code: AM1487-: LEG188.7.

Also featured in this segment were television commercials and promos: Bob Lenarduzzi of the Vancouver Whitecaps makes pancakes with Rogers’ Golden Syrup; Fred Latremouille reports on preparations for Expo ’86; promos attract international visitors to Expo ’86; and Mayoral candidate Bill Vander Zalm asks for your vote in a 1984 campaign ad.

Still from Expo 86 North American Consumer Television Campaign (1985). Reference code: AM1487-: 2006-105.1.

This segment also featured two short films documenting the construction of BC Place Stadium and the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden.

Still from Stadium (1983). Reference code: AM1553-8-S11-: MI-251

Our screenings would not be successful without ongoing support from Vancity Theatre and Finalé Editworks. Thanks also to Shaw Media and the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden Society for permitting us to screen their videos.

We are always honoured to have musician and composer Wayne Stewart provide musical accompaniment for the silent footage at our screenings. Wayne played jazz standards and his own delightful compositions to bring to life the mood and character of scenes from the past.

Wayne Stewart provides musical accompaniment to the screening. Photograph by Bryan Chong.

And, of course, we are indebted to Michael Kluckner for connecting Vancouverites with their history. Michael’s historical insights and deep knowledge continue to attract huge interest in the city’s past.

We have put the show on YouTube without Trading Post and A Chinese Classical Garden, for which we do not have copyright.