One of Vancouver’s most popular historical resources is now available online so more people will be able to access the stories of Vancouver’s early pioneers, settlers, the aboriginal community, prominent members of society and ordinary men and women.

“As Vancouver celebrates its 125th year, what better way to honor the city than to revisit its early history in the words of those who were there,” said Mayor Gregor Robertson. “Digitizing Early Vancouver and making it available online is a great gift to Vancouver and I want to thank our Archives team for making sure these fascinating stories are available for generations to come.”

Early Vancouver is a seven-volume work that includes newspaper clippings, illustrations, photographs and first-hand accounts of what life was like in Vancouver over 125 years ago. From 1931 to 1956, Vancouver’s first City archivist, Major James Skitt Matthews, interviewed Vancouver’s last remaining residents who had been alive before 1886, the year of both the city’s incorporation and the Great Fire.

To celebrate the completion of the project, the City of Vancouver Archives, in partnership with the Vancouver Historical Society, held an event at the Archives last week to demonstrate the use of the online edition of Early Vancouver, which is available here.

At the event, Lee Henderson, author of the award-winning book The Man Game, highlighted the inspiration he found for his novel from the Early Vancouver volumes and drew parallels between early and contemporary Vancouver. This was followed by Coco Baton, an acoustic performance by local artists Robert Pedersen and Jake Hardy to depict the sounds, music and experience of early Vancouver.

The digitization project was funded by the Vancouver Historical Society and the Government of Canada through Canadian Heritage.