Historical Vancouver Videos

The Vancouver Historical Society, with restoration by the Library and Archives Canada, present an historical video of Vancouver, BC.

It was with great pleasure that I was invited to a screening of Vancouver Historical Society’s City Reflections: 1907- Vancouver- 2007. When a Seattle filmmaker, William Harbeck, decided to strap a camera onto an electric streetcar in downtown Vancouver in 1907, the footage would be lost to the next generation. It ended up in a private collection in Australia, mislabelled as coverage from Hobart, Tasmania!

After making it’s way Library and Archives Canada, it was restored to it’s present glory. The clever folks at the historical society decided to shoot the same film, 100 years later, on the same streets of downtown Vancouver. Side-by-side coverage of the two films, as well as intelligent and humorous narration allows future generations to see how far the city has come in 100 years.

“While street scenes of today’s Vancouver may not seem all that interesting to us now, think how different some of these scenes will look to someone 25, 50 or maybe even 100 years from now,” says Jim McGraw, a board member of the Vancouver Historical Society. “Will our cars look as quaint to them as horses and wagons look to us today?”

Another screening will be held for the public on May 22, 2008 at the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre (604-738-7827, 1100 Chestnut Street) for an 8:00pm showtime. The DVD will be made available shortly from the City Reflections website.