archives
collecting data:
for the love of words and pictures and true stories
Adding to personal effects, memories, and anecdotes, my search for familial memorabilia includes excavating facts and artifacts from deep within the archival crevices of collecting data.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, so might a thousand photos, I've discovered, reveal a true story.
COLLECTING DATA
archives
As a social researcher, accessing relevant archives is a fascinating journey of discovery. Digging deeper, connecting the dots, one thing leading to another. Following are the public resources I have accessed to extend and enrich my search for familial artifacts:
artifacts
Artifacts reveal interesting details and create astonishing stories: the street someone lived on, the year the railway came to town; religions, affiliations, occupations. Below is a roundup of the types of public and personal artifacts I have so far recovered and/or uncovered:
ancestry.ca
newspapers.com
wikipedia.org
thecanadianencyclopedia.ca
Petit Palais Museum of Fine Arts, Paris FR
Women's Musical Club of Edmonton
Royal Conservatory of Music
Vancouver Magic Circle (IBM Ring 92)
International Brotherhood of Magicians (IBM)
Vancouver Nightclubs (circa 1940s-1950s)
Vancouver Public Library
City of Vancouver Archives
West Vancouver Archives
Emily Carr University (Van. School of Art)
University of British Columbia (Records)
UBC Libraries & Resources
King Edward High School (VSB Archives)
West Van Senior Secondary School
Grant High School, Van Nuys CA
Social Media and Google Searches
background data collected from magazine articles and newspaper clippings, catalogues and inventories, pamphlets and programs, diplomas and transcripts, documents and applications
facts and figures culled from minutes, records, newsletters, obituaries; shipping logs, war records, census data; phone directories, trolly routes, city maps; report cards, year books, school gazettes
Adding to my familial artifacts is a treasure vein of effects found and brought into the light:
tucked-away dance cards and love letters
forgotten safety deposit boxes and long-lost storage lockers
caches of never seen found-object assemblages and needle-craft collections
photo albums concealing long-held secrets and revealing untold stories
MEMORABILIA
"How fiercely they competed against each other and, at the finish line, how joyfully they were the closest of brothers." (Richard Horner, schoolmate)
Fractal art digitally created, collaged, and coloured; applied to kimono styles for digital dye-printing on silk satins and broadcloths.(Sheila Martineau Designs Ltd.)
booklets
I plan to create several visual, biographic booklets during the years ahead. My first offering, The Boys (2021), draws on memories of my deceased brothers and on the words, pictures, and true stories collected from their friends, teachers, and coaches, as well as from media clippings and photographs, school books and records. View flipbook.