When we started building digital collections, we were learning as we worked. One of our first collections was built in 2007 with a grant from the Irving K. Barber BC History Digitization Program. Drawing on material in the Sylvester Fonds as well as materials from Special Collections, the McPherson Library circulating collection, and the Map collection, we created the Victoria Early History Collection. The grant allowed us to purchase some key equipment and software and to hire a grad student; we bootstrapped the rest.
The collection includes maps, pamphlets, photographs, ephemera, books, and Frank Sylvester’s “Commonplace Book” — something of a hybrid scrapbook and diary. One of my favourite pieces of ephemera from the collection is a receipt for rent in July 1890 for a house at 57 Pandora Street; the rent was $18.00.
Since then, we’ve gone through several upgrades to technology and I look back at what we accomplished happily. We may do some things differently now, but even then, our goal was to get the clearest, most accurate representation of the physical artifacts.
We did add one item at a later date. The Province Pocket Road Map of Victoria … for Bicyclists from 1897. It was really too good not to add and the timing couldn’t have been better as we were able to tie it into Bike to Work Week for that year.
If you are interested in the early history of Victoria, dig around through Victoria’s Early History collection. I’d love to know which item is your favourite!