Coquitlam Archives Annual Report 2020

Annual Report 2020

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Front cover: Burnishing Repairs on a Panorama (Fraser Spafford-Ricci Inc.) Back cover: Applying wheat starch paste to cracks (Fraser SpaffordRicci Inc.) Above: Student Nurses in front of West Lawn, 1939 (C5-S09-F17) Opposite page: Ultan Patrick Byrne in hospital laboratory (Riverview Hospital Historical Society collection, C5.3773)

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 2020 Highlights. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 New Staff. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Outreach. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Acquisition Highlights. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Reference Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Arrangement and Description. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Digitization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Conservation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Plans for 2021 and Beyond . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

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INTRODUCTION 2020 certainly wasn’t the year anyone expected. Like everyone else, the Archives was faced with the realities of the global pandemic and had to adjust to the ever-shifting reality of working life in the face of COVID-19. Despite the challenges, Archives staff persevered and accomplished a significant amount of meaningful work throughout the year.

Working from home in the first months of the pandemic gave staff the opportunity to focus on enhancing file-level descriptions as well as subject and place access points in the Archives’ online search portal.

Staff added hundreds of descriptions as well as digitized photographs and documents, making collections more visible and enhancing remote access to support researchers wherever they might be located.

Through it all, staff continued to offer responsive reference services and highlighted the records in our holdings through four new online exhibits that explore Coquitlam’s unique past and raise the profile of the Archives.

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2020 HIGHLIGHTS | NEW STAFF | OUTREACH

Left: Junior and Senior Nurses in front of Nurses Home No. 1, ca. 1939 (Riverview Hospital Historical Society collection, C5.4008) Middle: Henry Esson Young Building, Second Auditorium (Riverview Hospital Historical Society collection, C5.3911) Right: Leah Rae, Archives and Records Officer

New Staff The Archives was excited to welcome Leah Rae, who joined the team as Archives and Records Officer in March. Leah’s first year was a challenging one, but she brought a welcome kindness and enthusiasm to the team.

Outreach The Archives added new physical exhibits to its outreach efforts in 2020 and continued to build the profile of the Archives in the community through a number of initiatives.

Archives staff provided several workshops and spoke to a number of community groups with a view to increasing the profile of the Archives and encouraging exciting acquisitions.

Online Exhibits The Archives continued its series of online exhibits to showcase archival records from the holdings, to highlight conservation work undertaken to safeguard our unique materials and to explore and celebrate Coquitlam’s history.

The exhibits were highlighted on the City’s social media channels and in the local community newspaper, the Tri-City News, helping to raise awareness and drive traffic to the Archives’ website. A special thanks to staff in Corporate Communications for their hard work to get these exhibits online and into the public consciousness.

The 2020 online program opened with an exhibit prepared by Assistant Archivist, Andréa Tarnawsky, about the fascinating history of psychiatric nursing at the Provincial Mental Hospital, Essondale, in Coquitlam. An Emerging Profession: Psychiatric Nursing at Essondale, 1913–1973 gives a brief history of psychiatric nursing in British Columbia and tells the story of the School of Psychiatric Nursing at Essondale using photographs, documents and ephemera from the Riverview Hospital Historical Society collection, preserved by the City of Coquitlam Archives.

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The second exhibit, Fixing a Moment in Time, was prepared

by City Archivist, Emily Lonie. It explores the magic of photograph conservation and highlights the conservation treatment of three panoramic photographs from the City of Coquitlam Archives. Photographs are a window to the past, forever capturing a moment in time and fixing it to a physical carrier that can be preserved and cherished. How can we ensure that our photographs will be around for generations to come? And what do we do when our precious photographs begin to fall apart? The exhibit provides an in-depth look at the conservation process and provides before and after shots of the records to illustrate the incredible work undertaken by the professional conservators. The exhibit also helps readers to learn some best practices for preserving their own family photographs.

In the fall, Andréa Tarnawsky prepared a follow-up online exhibit about the everyday experience of psychiatric nurses at Riverview Hospital. Through photographs, ephemera, and documents, “An Ode to A Nurse in Training”: School Life for a Student Psychiatric Nurse explores the delicate balance of the student psychiatric nurses’ demanding school life and their social recreations. The exhibit was featured in an article in the Tri-City News and Andréa was interviewed by CityTV News for a special series about Riverview Hospital.

The final exhibit of the year explored the process of researching the history of a home with a view to preserving it as a built heritage asset in the city. Built History: Preserving Coquitlam’s Heritage Homes highlights archival records that can help uncover the history of houses in Coquitlam. Using the heritage home at 907 Walls Avenue as an example, the exhibit walks the reader through the research process, highlighting all of the relevant records available at the City of Coquitlam Archives and at other heritage institutions in British Columbia and Canada. The exhibit will be of particular interest to residents looking to learn more about the history of their homes or for owners and developers looking to enter into a Heritage Revitalization Agreement with the City.

OUTREACH | 2020

HIGHLIGHTS

Top left: Day Before Inspection, Nursing Annual (Riverview Hospital Historical Society collection, C5-S08-SS1-F6)

Physical Exhibits

Archives Awareness Week

Just before the realities of the pandemic set in, the Archives launched an exhibit of photographs depicting scenes from early Coquitlam and Port Coquitlam. Early Days: Views Compiled by the Canadian Pacific Railway, 1912–1914, presents ten stunning photographs from an album compiled by the Canadian Pacific Railway Company (C.P.R.) showing the construction of the new Operating Terminus in what was the Corporation of the District of Coquitlam and what is now the City of Port Coquitlam.

Archives staff participated in BC’s reinvigorated Archives Awareness Week during the third week of November. In her role as social media coordinator for the AABC, Andréa Tarnawsky live tweeted the Archiving Activism Unconference, which served as the flagship event of the week. For its part, the City of Coquitlam Archives presented a series of daily social media posts on all of the City’s channels to promote awareness of records in the Archives. The posts focused on lesser-known formats in order to show the broad extent of the Archives’ holdings. The posts highlighted aerial photographs, architectural drawings, panoramic photographs, sheet music and scrapbooks.

The exhibit also includes a photograph of the Kwikwetlem First Nation’s Reserve #1, as well as some early photographs of Colony Farm and Essondale’s West Lawn building under construction, which can be found in the original album. The complete album consists of thirty-six photographs and is preserved at the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal.

The beautiful photographs are featured prominently on the wall at the entrance to the Archives. Given the limitations on public access in 2020, this exhibit will remain in place through 2021.

In addition to the social media posts, the Archives posted a series of messages on the internal staff CorQBoard to highlight the work that goes on at the Archives to preserve and make accessible Coquitlam’s documentary heritage.

Throughout the week, staff learned about how Archives staff make acquisition decisions, appraise records, arrange and describe our holdings, ensure records are preserved and make records accessible to staff and to the public.

#TBT – Throwback Thursday The popular Throwback Thursday social media posts continued in 2020 and still proved to be an entertaining way of encouraging people to engage with the records preserved at the Archives. In addition to the public success of the posts, Throwback Thursday continues to be a highly engaging internal initiative and the Archives receives regular positive feedback from City staff. Archives staff members have posted more than 300 Throwback Thursday posts since the initiative began and there are more to come in 2021.

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Top right: Essondale’s Psychiatric Nursing Graduating Class, 1932 (Riverview Hospital Historical Society collection) Second row left: Before Treatment Panorama showing students and teachers from Our Lady of Lourdes School (Nicklen Family fonds, F40.001) Second row right: After Treatment Panorama showing students and teachers from Our Lady of Lourdes School (Nicklen Family fonds, F40.001) Bottom left: Archives Awareness Week tweet Bottom right: AABC Archives Awareness Week tweet

2020 HIGHLIGHTS | OUTREACH

Top left: 307 Begin Street, ca. 1913 (Coquitlam Heritage Society collection, MH.2011.3.7) Top right: 307 Begin Street After Restoration (City of Coquitlam) Second row left: Group portrait of workers in front of the Canadian Pacific Railroad Company Roundhouse under construction, Richard Broadbridge (Canadian Centre for Architecture, PH1981_1286_004) Second row right: Early Days exhibit at the Archives

Professional Associations and Local Organizations In 2020, the City of Coquitlam Archives continued to be an active and engaged member of the wider archival community in British Columbia and across the country, to ensure that staff members remain up to date on professional best practices and give back to the professional community through the sharing of experience and expertise.

City Archivist, Emily Lonie, served as Chair of the Program Committee for the annual conference of the Association of Canadian Archivists (ACA). The conference was meant to take place at the University of British Columbia in June but, due to the pandemic, the conference was forced to transition to a virtual format in only two months. Despite the challenges, the unprecedented event was a major success. The conference brought together 85 speakers and drew over 500 attendees, which was a new ACA attendance record. The virtual format provided unparalleled accessibility, affordability and sustainability. ACA 2020 demonstrated the possibilities of virtual events and set a new path to deliver more content virtually to a wider audience, thereby extending the Association’s reach. At a ceremony in the fall, Emily was awarded the ACA’s Membership Recognition Award for her work on the conference.

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The City Archivist continued to serve as Chair and Secretary for the Lower Mainland Municipal Archivists Forum, which met virtually in 2020 to discuss a range of common issues, share resources and best practices and discuss areas of potential collaboration and cooperation.

The City Archivist’s term on the Awareness Strategy Task Force was extended through 2020. It is one of three national task forces convened by the Steering Committee on Canada’s Archives. The Awareness Strategy Task Force is focused on ensuring that the public, policy-makers, and politicians understand the value and importance of archives. The draft Awareness and Advocacy Strategy was completed and was submitted for translation and approval by the Steering Committee. The final strategy will be released in 2021.

Assistant Archivist, Andréa Tarnawsky, served as the Social Media Coordinator for the Archives Association of British Columbia (AABC). In this role, she highlighted AABC events and ensured that followers were made aware of interesting developments in the archival community. She also provided live-tweeting services for the AABC virtual conference in May and the Archives Week Unconference in November.

City Clerk, Jay Gilbert, contributed his archival expertise as a member of the External Advisory Committee for Library and Archives Canada’s Documentary Heritage Communities Program, which provides funding to eligible organizations across the country.

OUTREACH | 2020

Speaking Engagements It is important for professionals to make themselves available to the next generation in order to enhance pedagogy with real-world experience. Opportunities for speaking engagements were limited this year, but Andréa Tarnawsky shared her experience related to archival arrangement and description with Masters students at the University of British Columbia (UBC).

Publications City Archivist, Emily Lonie, was approached by British Columbia History magazine to write an article for one of their issues on the topic of lost communities. Emily chose to highlight Westwood Racetrack and the community that built it. Westwood was Canada’s first purpose-built road racing track and was a prominent feature of the Coquitlam landscape for thirty years before it was replaced by the Westwood Plateau housing development. The article, Revving Engines and Cheering Fans: Westwood Motorsport Park, 1959–1990 can be found in the Spring 2020 edition of the magazine.

Conferences In February, the City Archivist and the Assistant Archivist attended the Association of Canadian Archivists conference at the University of British Columbia (ACA@UBC) hosted by students and faculty of the School of Library, Information, and Archival Studies. The ACA@UBC welcomes international archival experts who share best practices from diverse national perspectives. It turned out that this was the last inperson event offered in 2020.

In May, Archives staff were able to attend the virtual conference of the Archives Association of British Columbia (AABC) to connect with the archival community in the province. The Assistant Archivist also attended the AABC UnConference held during Archives Awareness Week in November on the subject of archival activism.

HIGHLIGHTS

The City Archivist served as Chair of the Program Committee for the annual conference of the Association of Canadian Archivists. Because of the change in format to a virtual conference, all Archives staff were all able to attend the multiday event to learn about the latest developments in archival theory and practice in Canada and around the world.

Events While most in-person events were cancelled this year, the Archives did participate in the City’s virtual Canada Day. City Archivist, Emily Lonie, recorded a video tour of the Archives that was broadcast on Canada Day and made available afterwards on YouTube.

Throughout the year, Archives staff regularly participated in the Coquitlam Public Library’s weekly Book Recommendations broadcast on Facebook Live. We were pleased to be regular guests for this series, which will continue in 2021.

In September, the Archives partnered with the Coquitlam Heritage Society (CHS) and the Coquitlam Public Library (CPL) to offer the physically-distanced Chronicling COVID event. Members of the public were given the opportunity to write a postcard to their future selves and to talk about their experiences of the pandemic. The event was also designed to encourage participation in the CHS journaling project and the Library’s COVID Time Capsule project, which will be preserved in the Archives. The event was a great opportunity to expand the partnerships between the three organizations.

Media Coverage In 2020, the Archives received eight requests from the media.

The Tri-City News featured the Archives in several articles and used archival records to illustrate or contextualize their stories. The Archives’ Riverview collection also featured heavily in a CityTV News special series on Riverview that aired in December and is available on YouTube.

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Left: Cover of BC History Magazine Middle: Tri-City News article, May 4, 2020 Right: CityTV News Special on Riverview

2020 HIGHLIGHTS | ACQUISITION HIGHLIGHTS Left: Photo of Tri-City News on shelves Right: Coquitlam Football Club, 1912 (Irene McMillan collection, C19.002)

Acquisition Highlights 1.

Hoy Scott Watershed Society The Archives was pleased to receive a donation of records from the Hoy Scott Watershed Society. The records include administrative records, reports and photographs documenting the activities of the HoyScott Watershed Society and the operations of the Hoy Creek Hatchery. These records will be arranged and described and made available to researchers in 2021.

2.

Tri-City News 2001–2018 The Archives was pleased to receive an accrual to its existing collection of bound newspapers from the Tri-City News. The accrual included 88 volumes from 2001 to 2018. The collection now includes 133 bound volumes covering the period from 1990 to 2018.

3.

Burquitlam Community Association The Archives has a growing collection of records related to the various residents’ associations across the city. In 2020, the Archives added the records of the Burquitlam Community Association. The fonds has been arranged and described in Quest and includes minutes, newsletters, correspondence, program records and photographs.

4.

Coquitlam Football Club photographs from Irene McMillan The Irene McMillan collection consists of two original photographs of the Coquitlam Football Club from 1910–1912. The photographs include names of the players as well as the names of the trophies that appear in the photographs. These photographs help to document the sporting history of the city.

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5.

City Records – Annual Reports, Leisure Guides and Newsletters The Archives facilitated the transfer of a number of collections of City records that have been arranged, described and, in many cases, digitized and made available online for researchers. These collections include Annual Reports, Leisure Guides and Newsletters.

6.

Edmund and Garry May Colchester research collection Late in the year, the Archives received a donation of research materials created and accumulated by the late Edmund and Garry May Colchester. From 1973–1976, Mr. and Mrs. Colchester undertook a project to explore early domestic building in British Columbia as part of a joint effort with Simon Fraser University’s Geography Department. Following the study, Edmund and Garry May utilized the materials gathered for a number of personal writing and research projects, including one related to Maillardville and Fraser Mills. The research collection includes photographs, maps, promotional materials from Crown Zellerbach, a variety of historical documents and annotated copies of their reports.

7.

Records of Lillian Touzeau related to Riverview Hospital Over the years, the Archives has developed an incredibly rich collection of records related to nursing at Riverview Hospital. In 2020, the Archives received a donation that included a variety of records accumulated by Lillian Touzeau relating to her time in training and as a nurse at the Provincial Mental Hospital at Essondale. At the request of the donor, these records will be incorporated into the existing Personal Collections series of the Riverview Hospital Historical Society collection.

REFERENCE SERVICES | ARRANGEMENT AND DESCRIPTION | 2020

8.

Accrual to the Northeast Coquitlam Ratepayers’ Association (NECRA) fonds The Archives received an accrual to the NECRA fonds early in 2020. The records include a photo album containing colour photographs related to NECRA events and Coquitlam’s north-east from 1992 to 2003, as well as speech notes and meeting minutes. These will be integrated with the existing NECRA fonds in 2021.

HIGHLIGHTS

During the past year, the City Archivist answered 60 staff requests and has been involved with several staff projects by providing access to records, historical information and professional expertise. Some highlights include: The Heritage Management Strategy Core Review Team; the City Website project; historic, interpretive signage for Burke Mountain and Hoy Creek Park; and the ongoing Street Naming Database project.

Reference Services

Arrangement and Description

The City of Coquitlam Archives provides online access to digital content and descriptions of holdings through Quest, the Archives’ online search portal. As more digital content is added to Quest, researchers are better able to access historical records without having to visit the Archives for assistance.

Nineteen new accessions were received and 1,195 archival descriptions were added to Quest in 2020. This important arrangement and description work enables more efficient location of specific items and, in turn, makes the entire collection more accessible and, thus, more valuable to researchers.

In 2020, Quest traffic increased by 38%, and the Archives saw a marked rise in reference requests, likely attributed to the increased interest in historical projects during the pandemic.

Given the limitations of the pandemic, Archives staff focused extensively on arrangement and description work over the course of the year, especially during the three months of lockdown. Staff focused on enhancing existing descriptions and access points and worked to process material in the backlog. A number of PDF finding aids were converted to file-level descriptions in Quest to facilitate retrieval of information.

Since its inception, Quest has received more than 220,000 page views by over 20,000 unique users. In 2020, Quest received 51,495 page views from 7,107 users, who viewed an average of 5.98 pages per session.

In 2020, members of the public made 136 reference requests and the Archives welcomed 15 researchers to review archival material on-site. In-person reference was curtailed during the three-month period of lockdown from March to June. From June to July, the Archives was open by appointment and then at the end of July, drop-in hours resumed.

This foundational arrangement and description work will continue to be a core activity in 2021 in order to make new acquisitions available to the public as soon as possible.

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Left: Burquitlam Plaza, 2004 (Burquitlam Community Association fonds, F44.002) Right: District of Coquitlam newsletter, 1972

2020 HIGHLIGHTS | DIGITIZATION | CONSERVATION

Left: Digitized 1986 Heritage Inventory photographs in Quest (District of Coquitlam fonds, F42-S01) Right: Digitized Newsletters in Quest (District of Coquitlam fonds, F42-S06)

Digitization The Archives continued to digitize photographs and textual records from its holdings and uploaded them to Quest so that they would be accessible without the need for direct intervention by Archives staff. This has enabled more records to be retrieved by researchers wherever they happen to be located.

Hundreds of photographs from the Riverview Hospital Historical Society collection were digitized and made available online. This made accessible some of the photographs in the collection that had longer-term preservation concerns, like fading, curling and silver deterioration. The photographs were in a wide range of formats, including a 19th century albumen print, panoramic photos of the graduating classes from the School of Psychiatric Nursing in the 1930s and large format, acetate negatives depicting the everyday life of the Chief Steward’s family in the 1930s and 1940s.

In 2019, the Planning and Development Department transferred a large collection of photographs and files associated with the 1986 Heritage Inventory. In 2020, the photographs were digitized and made available online through Quest.

Several collections of City records were also digitized and added to Quest in 2020. These include a series of newsletters prepared between 1972 and 1992 that kept residents up to date about events in the District of Coquitlam. The newsletters provide a fascinating look back at how the City was growing and evolving during a key period in its development.

Several smaller photograph collections were digitized and made available online, including the Irene McMillan collection that includes two incredible photographs of the champion Coquitlam Ranchers Football Team from the early 20th century. Photographs and speeches related to former Coquitlam Reeve R.C. MacDonald were digitized and added to Quest as part of the Walter Bruce MacDonald collection and records in the Diane Stiglish collection were digitized and made available online.

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The Archives has been pursuing a multi-year project to digitize a series of nearly 400 microfilm reels from the City Clerk’s Office. The reels contain some of the most important historical records maintained by the City with the highest evidentiary and historical value. In many cases, the City Clerk’s Office microfilm reels contain the only surviving copies of historical Reports to Council, as well as critical correspondence and supporting documentation that provide evidence of decision-making. By digitizing the collection and using optical character recognition technology, access to these crucial records is dramatically improved. Funds from the City’s Asset Pool were received in 2020 to continue this project.

Finally, in order to improve access to the City’s historic Council Minutes, these vital records were digitized by an external service provider at the end of 2020 and will be made available through Quest in 2021.

Conservation In 2020, conservation treatment was completed on three incredible panoramic photographs from the Charpentier Family and Nicklen Family collections. The Charpentier photographs show the congregations of Our Lady of Lourdes and Our Lady of Fatima parishes gathered in front of the two churches in the early 1950s. The Nicklen photograph shows Our Lady of Lourdes schoolchildren and nuns gathered in front of the school on the church grounds in the 1940s.

The three photographs were stored rolled for many years prior to their transfer to the Archives and as such were cracking and lifting and showing signs of deterioration in the form of silver mirroring. The conservation treatment was highly successful and has ensured that the photographs are safe to handle. The deterioration has been halted and some repairs have been undertaken to stabilize the photographs.

The extensive conservation work was highlighted in the online exhibit, Fixing a Moment in Time.

PLANS FOR 2021 AND BEYOND | 2020

CONCLUSION Left: Consolidating delaminating paper around the edges of with wheat starch paste (Fraser/Spafford Ricci Inc.) Right: Carefully removing tape (Fraser/Spafford-Ricci Inc. )

Plans for 2021 and Beyond Acquisitions • Continuing to capitalize on the Archives’ increased storage capacity by developing relationships with community groups and pursuing other proactive measures to promote the transfer of historical material • Coordinating with the City Clerk’s Office to identify and transfer City records with archival value Preservation • Implementing a Digital Preservation Program to ensure digital records can be preserved over the long-term • Digitizing important collections and those with preservation concerns (e.g. tax assessment rolls and scrapbooks) • Assessing and addressing the conservation needs of the holdings

Access • Expanding content available online through Quest • Digitizing photographs and textual records and making them available online • Continuing the intellectual and physical processing of new and existing holdings • Continuing to provide detailed responses to public and staff reference requests Outreach • Producing quarterly online exhibits that highlight the records and the work being done in the Archives • Curating exhibits in partnership with other heritage and arts organizations • Continuing outreach initiatives like Throwback Thursday • Developing new outreach initiatives in partnership with the University of British Columbia, Douglas College, the Coquitlam Teachers’ Association, Coquitlam Heritage Society, Coquitlam Public Library, etc.

The City of Coquitlam Archives continues to preserve the documentary memory of the City of Coquitlam and the Coquitlam community. In the coming years, the Archives will continue to fulfill its important mandate while striving to find new and innovative ways of connecting the community to its past, including the diversification of the Archives’ holdings so that the entire community sees itself represented in the documentary heritage preserved at the Archives.

City of Coquitlam Archives Team City Archivist: Emily Lonie Assistant Archivist: Andréa Tarnawsky Archives and Records Officer: Leah Rae

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City of Coquitlam Archives 1171 Pinetree Way Coquitlam, BC, V3B 7N2

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