Today is International Women’s Day and in Vancouver, women have played a strong role in developing its history and making sure it moves into the future. The Vancouver Police Museum reminded us on Twitter this morning that Vancouver was the first city in the world to hire women as cops and I wanted to showcase […]

It was March 3rd 1892 when Charles Woodward opened his first store on the corner of Harris Street (now Georgia) and Westminster Avenue (now Main) in Vancouver. He had just arrived in town from Ontario and the small setup sold dried foods. It wasn’t until 1895 that he added a drug department, incorporated (Woodward Stores […]

The injustice that was the Komagata Maru incident was one of the first things my teacher talked about in grade 11 social studies and the name has always stuck with me. In 1914 a Japanese steamship carried 376 passengers (all British subjects) from Punjab, India over to Vancouver by way of Hong Kong, Shanghai, and […]

As we make our way through Vancouver’s 125th anniversary year, many have been looking back to see how our city has grown. Thanks to the efforts of Vancouver’s first Archivist, Major Matthews, and photographers who took to documenting the ‘early years’ we can view glimpses of what Vancouver was like in its formative years. One […]

Keeping up with work and blogging while in Africa has proven to be a challenge (as can be expected) however all of the travel has inspired this week’s photo collection from the Vancouver Archives which has an airport theme. Year: 1946 Subject: Airline stewardess passing the “Vancouver, City of Destiny” film to a man at […]