The Vancouver Polar Bear Swim returns to English Bay for the 92nd year thanks to Mr. Peter Pantages. It was in 1920 that Pantages created the club and the brisk ocean dip has been a New Year’s tradition ever since. Peter’s family still carries on the tradition of the Polar Bear Swim Club today. December […]

Browsing through the Vancouver Archives this morning I searched for photographed under the category “celebrations”. It was in that pile of digital photographs that I found a photos of Sister Frances of Strathcona receiving a “Good Citizenship Medal” from the City of Vancouver. 1929 – Archives item# CVA 99-1874. Photographer: Stuart Thomson Sister Frances Redmond […]

The City of Vancouver’s boundaries as we know them (Burrard Inlet, Boundary Road, the Fraser River, and Pacific Spirit Park) were not always part of Vancouver. Throughout its 125-year history, Vancouver has expanded and amalgamated several times. When it was incorporated on April 6, 1886, it was made up of what we would now call […]

Vancouver History Telephones – Photos from the Archives

I scanned through the Vancouver Public Library’s archives to come up with a merry collection of images from Christmas in Vancouver over the last century in this week’s series. 1900’s – Santa giving gifts. VPL Accession Number: 18052. Photographer: Stuart Thomson. 1918 – Butcher shop at 2513 Main St. VPL Accession Number: 20633. Photographer: Dominion […]

They 99th Grey Cup Championship is coming to Vancouver at the end of this week with a parade, festival, and final game in which our BC Lions are participating. The Lions had a bumpy start to their season at Empire Field but moved into their renovated home at BC Place and stormed up the ranks […]

This week’s theme is a not-so-subtle reminder that there is a civic election happening this Saturday, November 19, 2011. The City of Vancouver has had 39 individual mayors in its 125 years, here are just a few of them in action over the last century. 1886 – VPL Accession Number: 508. The first council meeting […]

HistoryPin has been developed by We Are What We Do (a non-profit company) and Google to mashup maps with historic photos from communities around the world. The map works by adding user-contributed photos to Google Maps and Street Views. You can zoom into communities and pin points for a true “the and now” view of […]

It’s always a challenge to come up with a theme for my weekly series. However, being that this month is all about facial hair growth for Movember, I decided to make “moustaches” my focus this week. All of the photos below were taken in Vancouver over the last century and found via the Vancouver Archives. […]

It’s a happy Halloween in Vancouver as I watch robots, Lego men, Sailor Moon, and plenty of pirates walk by this morning. I thought it would be fun to check out what Vancouverites did for this haunting occasion in the past but I was unable to find many results for “Halloween” during my research but […]