View of Moody, Dietz, & Nelson’s Saw-mill, at Burrard Inlet, a hand-coloured etching from a photograph by D. Withrow, believed to be published in the West Shore magazine, circa 1884 (I have yet to determine exactly which issue it is from). Oh, correction; this might actually be from Canadian Illustrated News, published in Montreal, Quebec by George Desbarats from 1869 to 1883. The Library and Archives Canada has a picture of this same etching which it dates as 22 June 1872, vol.V, no. 25, 389. The first and last complete issue of Canadian Illustrated News can be viewed online here:

This hand-coloured print is from the Vancouver Archives documentary art collection. 

The CPR’s SS Princess Marguerite passing under the Lions Gate Bridge, another postcard by Edward Goodall. Here’s a handsome colour image of the ship taken June 30, 1973. You can hear the sounds of her final voyage in this video clip as she pulls into Seattle on September 17, 1989: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzHtRgtupss

More from Historylink.org:

The SS Princess Marguerite, built in 1925, and the SS Princess Marguerite II, built in 1948, were the most famous of these small luxury liners. Tragically, in 1942, the Princess Marguerite, serving as a troop ship during World War II, was torpedoed and sunk in the Mediterranean Sea by a German U-boat. Her successor, the Princess Marguerite II, was in service for 60 years under four different owners. At the end of her career, efforts to save the historic steamship for posterity proved unsuccessful and in 1996 she was sold for scrap metal. In March 1997, a former B.C. ferry, the M/V Queen of Burnaby, was renamed the Princess Marguerite III and put on the run between Seattle and Victoria, but the service was discontinued after three seasons. Ships carrying the name Princess Marguerite plied the waters between Seattle and Victoria for 74 years, becoming a part of Seattle’s waterfront scene. Her name has a permanent place in Pacific Northwest maritime history, evoking fond memories of favorite summertime cruises and vacations.

The ad where she was sold for scrap can be seen here.

Yet another souvenir plate. This one is made especially for the Hudson’s Bay Company by Johnson Brothers of England, which joined the Wedgwood Group in 1968. I particularly like how this multilayered image succeeds as a collage decades before the Photoshop era. This would also be a fun plate to use for red beets and mashed potatoes. Currently for sale on ebay.

Souvenir scarf of Vancouver, circa 1950s seen on ebay recently. This would have made a nice second prize in my pillowcase throwdown, but alas someone else is the lucky winner.

Hastings Wharf, Vancouver, a watercolour by Thomas Mower Martin, RCA. From the book Canada, described by Wilfred Campbell LL.D. and published by A&C Black Ltd. London. 1907, still publishing today! Print (page from the book) offered for sale on ebay. T. Mower Martin lived from 1838-1934; a listing of 134 of his paintings that sold at auction Saturday, October 27, 1883 is available at archive.org. The portrait of him at his desk is from the Glenbow Museum in Calgary, AB, where they have a complete fonds dedicated to him. It looks like this fonds was acquired as a gift of John Harbert in 2003, with thanks to the Michael H. Dunn Trust, 2011. Here’s an excerpt from the biography they have posted:

Thomas Mower Martin, 1838-1934, was born in London, England and received art training at a number of institutions. He and his wife, Emma Nichols, 1842-1911 moved to Toronto, Ontario in 1862. He painted mostly landscapes, animals in action, still lifes and some portraits and traveled widely throughout North America. In 1887 he made his first trip to Western Canada under the sponsorship of the Canadian Pacific Railway and returned approximately ten times. A collection of articles entitled “Canada from an Artist’s Point of View” (1895) details some of his activities in the west. Martin was a founding member of the Ontario Society of Artists in 1872 and was director of the Ontario Government Art school from 1877 to 1879. He was also a founder of the Royal Canadian Academy in 1880…

Souvenir of Vancouver, BC; another pennant you may enjoy. I’m sure there’s lots more out there. Featured here: the RCMP at the Courthouse (now Art Gallery), Burrard Inlet, Indian Totem Poles at Stanley Park, and Lions Gate Bridge, again with a mistaken apostrophe. Perhaps this pennant is from the same era as the infamous silk pillowcase!

The Romance of Vancouver, a BC Electric trolley advertisement for the Vancouver Sun by cartoonist Fraser Wilson. I digitally enhanced this image, removing the brown ‘cardboard’ patina of the background to replicate what the original drawing might have looked like on paper. Wilson’s signature appears in the bottom right of the ad, and in the bottom left are the words:

José María Narváez
(1791) Discovers Vancouver

Wikipedia entry for José María Narváez

Fraser Wilson, mentioned here recently, was the cartoonist who sold his first cartoon at the age of 12 (circa 1917), and he continued to draw comics for the Vancouver Sun and the Daily Province until 1947. This trolley ad is one of the three referenced in this Vancouver Sun article, where John Mackie writes:

They probably date to the late 1930s and early ’40s, when posters were mounted on the front of streetcars. They survived because somebody packed them into walls as insulation and they were unearthed when houses were renovated or torn down.

The expression “The Romance of Vancouver” was a slogan used by the Vancouver Tourist Association on a number of occasions. Books were published with this title in 1926, 1929, 1936 (the year of the city’s Golden Jubilee), and in 1940. I wonder if this ad was part of a larger Golden Jubilee nostalgic ad campaign featuring all the early explorers; has anyone seen any others?

I’m putting out the call for anyone who has an old BCER trolley poster in their collection to get in touch with me. I’d love to build a larger visual database of these ads, and if possible, I’m attempting to make digital recreations of the posters I’ve seen thus far. Of course, you can read a lot of these ads in period photographs, but I’m super keen on seeing the real thing. You can get in touch with me by Twitter or via this site at illustratedvancouver.ca/submit. You can see my growing digital archive of this posters here.

Union Steamship Cardena by James Koll, 2011. 14”x20”, watercolour. Shown here entering First Narrows, the S.S. Cardena began service for the Union Steamship Company of British Columbia in 1923 and soon earned its reputation as finest in the fleet. It reliably served the coastal communities of the Inside Passage until it was retired in 1958. This original painting has sold, but a giclée print limited to a series of 75 is available from the artist.

On a related note, I’m still trying to track down where the watercolours by S P Judge have gone. Sadly, I’ve run into a bit of a dead end. I’ve spoken with Gerald Rushton’s grandson, and he does recall some steamship fine art that his grandfather may have owned, but doesn’t believe it remained with the family.

So a word to all art dealers; be on the lookout for a series of watercolours of the early Union Steamship fleet circa 1905, signed by S P Judge. They hung on the walls of the company’s boardroom, and were later acquired by Gerald Rushton, who wrote the book on Union Steamship twice. If we can’t track them down, let’s keep painting steamships! This fine example by James Koll should serve as an inspiration. 

Canada Place rendering by architectural illustrator Barry Lundahl, from an Expo 86 promotional brochure. Note this was back in the days when the Seabus was still orange!

The Chuck Davis’ Guide to Vancouver, a book from 1973 designed by celebrated typographer Jim Rimmer, illustrated by John Robertson, and published by J.J. Douglas Ltd, West Vancouver. Chuck Davis of course went on to publish many more books about the city, including one last immense book due to appear on November 15, 2011 appropriately titled the History of Metropolitan Vancouver. I had the pleasure of working with Chuck Davis on the Vancouver Historical Society production of City Reflections a few years ago. Much of my great respect for the city comes from him! And if you haven’t already perused his immense online resource VancouverHistory.ca, go there now!

Lady Alexandra, brochure for a floating restaurant made from a Union Steamship vessel that was withdrawn from service in 1953. According to wikipedia, the ship was converted into a restaurant in 1960, where it was “…was moored at Coal Harbor in Vancouver.^[3] Later the vessel was towed to California, and was wrecked in a storm in March, 1980, at Redondo Beach, California. This brochure was influenced by Bernard Buffet, perhaps?

The City and the Store, the cover art from a most excellent brochure from the golden age of the Woodwards Department Store, circa 1958, to commemorate British Columbia’s Centennial Year. The text in the brochure was attributed to Douglas E Harker (who incidentally was born 100 years ago), but it failed to credit the artist, who used coloured pencils or crayons to render period photographs in a precise and consistent way throughout the brochure. From the VPL Special Collections NW Hist Call #:658.871 W91ha.

Seawall Coastal Curves I by Tim Fraser, 2011. Tim is having a show at the Ian Tan Gallery September 10 - 29, 2011, with an opening reception Saturday, September 10; 2-4pm. From the Ian Tan website:

Tim Fraser is a member of the Federation of Canadian Artists and a Fine Arts graduate of Surrey’s Kwantlen College with a background in commercial art.  He has exhibited with Ian Tan since 2005 and has become well-known for his dreamy and curvaceous paintings of the Vancouver Seawall, with lollipop trees in luminous colours.  Fraser regularly visits Stanley Park to capture new vistas of the seawall.

Mia Johnson

Poster for the Design*Sponge Vancouver Book Tour, illustrated by Julia Rothman. The event itself has quickly filled its RSVP quota, but I’m sure you could always wander by on the date of the event and soak up some of the new book ambiance!

Fifty Years of Service (1891-1941), cover art by A. S. Barrett on a brochure from the B.C. District Telegraph & Delivery Co. Limited, seen at the VPL Special Collections Ref. NW Hist 338.74 B86f. I can find no other info on A. S. Barrett, though I came close with a mention of A. Oswald Barrett in Early Vancouver Volume 6. I suppose there’s a slim chance that A. S. Barrett is a descendent of A. O. Barrett. Here is the excerpt from conversations with Mr. Quintin James Trotter, 26 March 1941:

Kew Beach, (West Vancouver) 1919.

“It’s a long story as to how I acquired Kew Beach, but to cut it short, in 1913 it fell into my hands as debt; I loaned $12,600 on it as a mortgage to A. Oswald Barrett, and there was a second mortgage against it in favour of a Colonel Mainguy. The property comprised fifty acres, taking in the point. There was no legal difficulty; everything was very agreeable, and it was arranged that I should take over the property. Mr. Barrett is still in Vancouver, and we are good friends. And I paid $1,800 in back taxes on it.”