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Pages WEST VANCOUVER HISTORICAL SOCIETY September 1995 from the @4ivttev By: Anne Maclean, Community Records Archivist It is a great pleasure to be asked to contribute a regular article to Historyonics, and I thank the Newsletter Team for giving me the opportunity to fill you in on what we are doing at the West Vancouver Archives. The news from the “Dusty Comer” (at least, dusty to some) is as varied as our records. Since starting here in late March, I’ve been getting acquainted with the Museum staff and volunteers and the Historical Society Executive, whose meetings I attended in April and June. I also met with the Archives volunteers - Mary Chapman, Fran Hall, Joan Skipper, Edith Hawirko, Eleanor Hamilton, Pam Dewdney and Margery Andrews - to discuss the kind of work they did previously and what they’d be interested in doing in future. From the week of May 2, when the Archives reopened, until the end of June, Fran, Edith and Pam came in on Wednesdays to update the Information File, which contains clippings on numerous West Vancouver subjects such as Horseshoe Bay, Dundarave, and many others. Mary has also been here on Wednesdays (and occasionally Tuesdays as well), updating the Information File and the People File, assisting with reference services and cataloguing the Museum & Archives’ book collection. Mary took most of August off and returns in September. I am glad to welcome back all the Archives volunteers; I couldn’t mn the place without them. Since re-opening in May, the Archives has had a steady stream of visitors and phone calls. Our photograph collections remain popular as people ask for copy prints of the Ferry Building, the West Vancouver ferries, historic views of Marine Drive, and many others. I have also received eleven new accessions of material, including copies of photographs and clippings of skier Tom Mobraaten, photographs of the Dundarave Regatta, and new accmals of the West Vancouver Sketch Club and the Hollybum Sailing Club Records. All the new accessions are welcome additions to our holdings. In July the oak table in the Archives was re-finished by Virgil Billesberger of North Vancouver, through the generous assistance of the Colpitts Family. Mr. Billesberger sanded down the table surface and refinished it with tongue oil, giving it a much smoother feel and a very natural look. A plaque has been placed in the centre of the table acknowledging the Colpitts’ contribution. Come in some time and see our new (old) table for yourself! I have also been working with Deborah Tuyttens, Museum Curatorial Assistant, in setting up an Oral History Project Team which will coordinate oral history interviews with members of the community starting some time in the fall and continuing thereafter on an on-going basis. Deborah will be the Project Coordinator and I will assist with background research. On July 5 we had our first meeting with team members Don Graham, Cathy Tocher and Susan Dirasser to discuss our goals, objectives and approaches. We would like to start with old-timers, to ensure that we preserve the memories and first-hand accounts of early West Vancouver pioneers (especially those who remember the period before incorporation in 1912). The Project Team will meet again in the fall. If you are interested in conducting interviews, transcribing tapes or doing research, please let us know. I am very pleased to be working in a community where there is such enthusiasm for and interest in archival records. I recently had occasion to meet with fellow archivists and was troubled to hear how deeply affected they were as a group by our increasingly harsh economic times. They are concerned about keeping up-to-date with rapid changes in information/data processing, as well as increasing the profile of archives through greater public relations and promotion. But with continuing support from the archival volunteers, the Historical Society and the community at large, we are working with new technology and traditional description methods to promote the records that document West Vancouver’s rich and lively history. Towards this goal, we need the continued support of the community now more than ever! FROM r//F ARCHIVFS Editor’s Note: In a back issue of History-onics, I found a report of a Feature Presentation made by Mr. Francis Millerd at the May 1987 General Meeting on the origin and growth of the Great Northern Cannery. We were fortunate in being able to copy his address and his pictorial history of the Cannery for the archives. Following are excerpts from his address which may whet your thirst for ‘Cannery Days’, the forthcoming Museum Exhibit. Great Northern Cannery Excerpts from an Address by Frank Millerd at a General Meeting of the WVM&HS, May 28,1987 ...Doug Grafton worked with us at the cannery (Great Northern Cannery) for 30 years, and he would be a grandson of the original settler - Grafton (at Bowen Island), and I should have asked him if he knew when the Great Northern Cannery was built, because I don’t really know, but by deduction I have reached a certain conclusion. In 1885 the CPR came through, and in a report I read on this arrival (it was noted that) there were three buildings on the North Shore at that time, St. Paul’s Mission Church on the Indian Reserve in North Vancouver, the Pilot House at Kettle Point, this side of Point Atkinson, and the Great Northern Cannery. From this I deduce that in 1885 was about the time the cannery was built..pack reports unfortunately don’t start until 1900.... Before that it was run by a Company called the Defiance Packing Company, which I thought was a great name for any canning company.