The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

Paged WEST VANCOUVER HISTORICAL SOCIETY February 1996 ARCHIVES CORNER By: Anne Maclean, Community Records Archivist You may have noticed that starting with the November 1995 issue, my column has a new name. Gone are the dust and cobwebs referred to earli^ (gone with the wind, I hope), in favour of this simpler, plainer name, “Archives Comer.” My thanks to Laureen Jones for her fine artwork which appeared with my first colunm, and for her coopemtion in adapting her drawing to match the new title. We have been busy in the archives over the autumn and winter. The archives volunteers continue to do excellent work updating the Information File and assisting me with various other tasks; Td like to thank them all - Mary Ch^man, Fran Hall, Pam Dewdney, Edith Hawirko and Margery Andrews - for their hard work, and look forward to more great projects in "96. Since September we have had about 60 visitors to the archives, researching such subjects as HoUybum Ridge, Whyteclifif Park, the gardens at Gertrude Lawson House, the Ferry Building, proportional representation in West Vancouver, and many other topics. It is most interesting to meet members of the public from different backgrounds and to assist them in their research, or just show them around the archives. The display panels in the Historical Society headquarters on the third floor have also been popular. We are now getting ready for the next museum exhibit, “West Vancouver Collects,” which will open soon. I have been working with Susan Sirovyak, Museum Collections Assistant, in background research on the subjects of schools, the Lawson Family, photography, papers of West Vancouver reeves (including Joseph Leyland), and maps. We are excited about this exhibit as we hope it will encourage more community involvement from people who collect things (be they stamps, hats, buttons, photographs, postcards, or other, more exotic items). PersonaUy, I would love to call this exhibit “Collectors’ Items,” but perhaps that would be misleading! In any case it is a pleasure as always to work with Jacquie and the other knowledgeable and enthusiastic staff in exhibit prq)arations. Deborah and I are glad to be working with Peter Hall, who brings a lot of energy and practical know-how to the Oral History Project. We have been checking through the oral history tapes already in the archives to see which tapes have been transcribed, which still need transcripts, and which interviews should be followed up. We also hope to offer training sessions soon for those volunteers who will be going out and conducting new interviews. AU of our existing transcripts need to be entered into the compute (the ones we have were typed on the typewriter), so this viill be a valuable job for any interested volunteer. If you would like to help in any way, please let us know at 925-7295. I hope you all had a happy Christmas and New Year’s. I spent New Year’s in Kingston, Jamaica, visiting a friend and former classmate who is the Campus Records Manager at the University of the West Indies at Mona, Kingston. It was my first visit to Jamaica and it was exciting to spend part of the winter in such a far-away setting. My friend Vicki took me on a tour of her office, introducing me to some of her staff and showing me the storage facility where they keep most of their records, which she said looked like a “dumpster'’. She was exaggerating, of course; it reaUy looks more like a trailer. Looking after archival records in a hot, humid climate can be a challenge, as she acknowledged, but fortunately the facilities on the campus are air-conditioned, which helps maintain a cool, dry atmosphere for the records as well as being more comfortable for the staff. I for one would not want to work there with no air conditioning! However, there are other university records housed at other locations off-campus which are not always kept in such optimum conditions; Vrcki and her staff are working hard to alleviate this problem. All in aU, we in West Vancouver are fortunate to have such a moderate climate; if we ever need air conditioning, nature provides it for us. As they say in Jamaica, Happy Nw Year, Mon! Introducing Marc Denhez, Guest Speaker On February 22 Mr. Marc Denhez will address our General Meeting at the (Iledardale Centre at 7 pm. This will be a meeting not to be missed! Seldom do we have a guest speaker with such solid credentials, guaranteeing a stimulating, thought provoking, topical and above all, humourous evening. As well as being an internationally published author and lawyer, he was delegated by the Canadian Commission for UN^CO to serve on an international joint study on historical buildings. He has lectured at almost every university in Canada and various foreign institutions including the Smithsonian and the University of Edinburgh. He has received an award from the International Association of Communicators and a National Award from Environment Canada. Phew! And even more plaudits for which we haven't space. This may be why, in the words of Canadian Geographic book reviewer Charles Wrlkins, “....it is such an invigorating surprise, an outright tonic, to come across this excellent book (The Canadian Home). Denhez’ warm, vernacular style and his eye for detail bring the history of housing into microscopic focus.” He answers many questions about our Homes, both profound and otherwise and will discuss the* Best and Worst’ • **A fascinating study of Canadian Shelter” Pierre Berton • ^*Who could have imagined that the history of housii^ could be a hoot?” Marge Meikle, CBC By: Waring Pentland