It’s been a while since we’ve posted a Records Roundup for y’all, so we’re due. This series was started in 2021 to show a sampling of records that had been recently arranged and described by archivists and are available for public access, highlighting examples of both City and private-sector records. Bring on the round up, lickety split!
Sewer hookup records
To start, not one but two City record series for you from the Engineering Department: Sewer permit cards (COV-S723) and Sewer construction wye sheets (COV-S724). The sewer permit cards consist of 6 linear metres of textual records that document individual property lots connected to the City’s sewer system. Dating from 1912-2002, each card relates to a single block and includes the property address, legal description, sewer permit number, connection date and other remarks. Listed by avenue or street name, these cards are described in our database by an alphabetical range for each file. For instance, Arbutus Street to Butler Street.
Sewer construction wye sheets show diagrams used to document the locations of wye connections to the sewer line on a block. These records consist of 4 linear metres and cover the years 1940-2002. They are arranged alphabetically by street name, with each sheet pertaining to a particular block. Both these City record series’ may be of interest for anyone conducting house history, a common topic of research here at the Archives.
Records of Councillor Tim Louis
In addition to records from the City Clerk’s Office documenting the actions and decisions of City Council, as well as records from the Mayor’s Office, the Archives also receives records from individual councillors. Most recently, we received the records of former Councillor Tim Louis (COV-S720). After being elected to the Park Board in the early 1990s, Louis served as a City Council member for two terms, 1999-2005. This series, spanning 1997-2005, consists of incoming and outgoing correspondence from citizens and organizations that Louis received while on City Council and subject matter relates to municipal issues and policies that were of concern at the time.
Harry Rankin fonds
The records of the Harry Rankin fonds (AM1691) were donated to the Archives in 2018. Rankin (1920-2002) was a lawyer and politician of Vancouver, elected to City Council in 1966 and who continued to serve as Alderman through to 1986. In the custody of Philip Rankin, Harry Rankin’s son, they came to us by Teresa Alfeld who donated on behalf of the Harry Rankin Film Society. Alfeld used these records extensively for the making of the 2018 documentary, The Rankin File: Legacy of a Radical. The fonds spans 1939-2016, with records predominantly from 1950-2002, and is arranged into six series: RCMP surveillance reports, personal and family records, commentary and columns, politics and social just files, and legal case files. There are just over 2 metres of textual records and 16 photographs.
The largest series in the fonds is the RCMP surveillance reports. Created by the RCMP during their surveillance of Rankin over his alleged ties to the Communist Party, these reports were obtained by Rankin in 1999 and 2000 through an Access to Information request to the federal government. Below is one report discussing the Dec. 1973 visit of Hortensia Allende, widow of the deposed Chilean President Allende, who spoke to an audience at John Oliver Secondary School.
Like the records of Councillor Tim Louis, we also have an existing City record series from Rankin’s time as Alderman (COV-S471), which compliments the fonds and primarily focuses on two major downtown development proposals. Additionally, we hold the records of Mayor L.D Taylor (AM1477-1), Mayor Philip Owen (COV-S712), and numerous City Councillors including Mike Harcourt (COV-S465), May Brown (COV-S462), Libby Davies (COV-S646), Vankatachala Setty Pendakur (COV-S470), Marguerite Ford (COV-S464), Bruce Yorke (COV-S713), Gordon Price (COV-S695), George Puil (COV-S700), Jennifer Clark (COV-S699), and Lynne Kennedy (COV-S694).
Please note that both the records of Councillor Tim Louis and the Harry Rankin fonds, as well as records of some of the other Councillors, are held at our off-site location. While the majority of our records are at the Archives in Vanier Park, a small portion of records are now at our satellite storage site and take additional time to retrieve. Researchers looking to access this material can contact the Archives and staff will arrange to have the requested records brought in for access from our Reading Room.
Council meeting video
In 2023, the Archives received a small clutch of City Council meeting video (AM1487-F10) that covers meetings that took place from July 2001 to October 2004. These VHS video cassettes came to us as a private-sector donation from someone who had recorded the meetings off their television, back when Council meetings used to air on Shaw cable. This material has been added to our sound recording and moving image collection and consists of 55 tapes. For now, we’ve digitized a first set of 18 tapes and plan to digitize the rest of the material over time.
Research into Council decisions and civic administration can utilize these video recordings alongside the records of minutes and supporting documentation for each meeting. An example of one meeting video recording is from the time of the 2001 bus strike: at the July 24, 2001 Council meeting, protesters disrupted the meeting and took over the Council chamber to speak. The video from that day gives a different perspective than the official minutes from that meeting!
These recordings also include segments of local-access television programming and advertising.
The Archives also has video recordings of Council meetings that the City managed directly and were previously available to the public from the City’s website. Video recordings of more recent Council meetings are still accessed from that website, but the older video is now preserved at the Archives in City record series City Council video recordings (COV-S719). The series currently consists of over 800 video files dating 2004 to 2014, with more added on a regular basis. The addition of the VHS tapes in AM1487 helps round out earlier video of meetings the City didn’t otherwise have.
As you can see, the records rounded up here very much have a civic government focus. In addition to the City records that come to us through regular departmental transfers, thank you to our donors from the community for contributing to our holdings.
