Vancouver's city archives aims to preserve history. It has a colourful past of its own

Located in Vanier Park, the City of Vancouver Archives houses enough five-inch acid-free boxes of records to stretch eight kilometres if placed end to end.

It's a long way from the archives' modest beginnings, when the city archivist, a mercurial figure known as Major James Skitt Matthews, packed up the city's collection and took it to his house in "a fit of pique," according to Vancouver's current archivist.

Founded by Matthews in 1933, it is the first municipal archives in English-speaking Canada, says City of Vancouver archivist Heather Gordon, and has grown to house millions of documents. 

In honour of its 90th birthday, the archives has launched a social media campaign, sharing 90 photos from the vast collection over 90 days ahead of its birth date on June 12.

The archives' mandate is to acquire and preserve city records, but it also stores records from families, sports groups, businesses and cultural organizations. 

It's treasure trove of information for historians and researchers, says Gordon, but is also of use to the general public, who can search online archives or pore over analog documents at the building on Chestnut Street. 

Gordon says people often come in search of information about their properties. Some are looking for practical information such as development permits, but other are looking into their own pasts. 

"They're wanting to look at what we might have about particular places where family members might have lived," Gordon said.

"They look at city directories to trace who was living at particular addresses, and they find relatives that way."

Founder clashed with the city officials, politicians

The father of the city archives came to Vancouver from Wales via New Zealand in 1898. Known across the city as Major Matthews, he started collecting photos, maps and documents and interviewed early settlers. 

City council appointed Matthews as city archivist in 1933, Gordon said, starting a long and often stormy relationship with city officials. 

Matthews was known as a man who didn't suffer fools gladly. 

"He could be quite mean to people who would show up in the archives unless you managed somehow to convince him that you were worth his time — you were serious," Gordon said.

Part of his frustration with city officials, Gordon said, stemmed from what he felt was chronic underfunding and the fact that the archives bounced around between locations such as the city library and a dusty space in an upper floor of city hall. 

"At one point he got angry enough that he basically packed up the collection and took it home," Gordon said. 

Matthews didn't live to see the building in Vanier Park. He died in 1970 at the age of 92, two years before the opening of the current building, the first purpose-built municipal archives in Canada, which bears his name. 

Changing with the times 

Gordon says the archives have evolved over time, welcoming new perspectives. 

Many of the original documents came from a particular social strata, Gordon notes, since "the more privileged folk in town were the ones who could keep records."

Over time, it has worked to expand its holdings and gain new perspectives. Examples include the B.C. Gay and Lesbian Archives, which is now with the city. Photos from the Yucho Chow Studio, which operated in Chinatown for much of the first half of the 20th century, have also been donated.

A book about Matthews, The Man Who Saved Vancouver by author Daphne Sleigh, notes that he had a "reputation for crustiness and aggressive behaviour." It also quotes Matthews' own writing, which suggests that continuing to broaden the archives' holdings to paint a fuller picture of the city is in keeping with his vision. 

"In recording this data it is the duty of the chronicler to state the facts, and from there, after consideration, we attempt to improve the present and future by observing and avoiding the errors of the past," Matthews wrote.