Historical Map Collections

The Franco-Canadian (Dominion) Trust Company was a real estate and insurance firm active in Vancouver from approximately 1911 to 1947. The fonds consists of maps concerning properties handled by the company in the interior of British Columbia and on Vancouver Island. Some of them also include timber licences.

Hoffmeister Electric Company was founded in 1898 by Reinhart Hoffmeister, an electrical engineer from Wellington County, Ontario. The company was one of the first electric businesses in Vancouver and specialized in the design, construction, and installation of electric generators. The fonds comprises the operational and accounting records of Hoffmeister Electric Company from 1898 to 1959.

Bob Harris was born in England in 1922. After serving with the Royal Engineers in WWII and getting a degree in civil engineering from the University of London in 1948, he and his wife moved to Canada. He was responsible for the design and/or erection of several bridges in the Vancouver area, namely Granville, Ironworkers' Memorial, Oak Street and Port Mann Bridges. He spent over 20 years visiting the Provincial Archives and the Department of Lands in Victoria, accumulating a large mass of maps, diaries and fieldbooks of the early explorers, surveyors and road builders, geologists and miners. Fonds consists mostly of cartographic materials relating to reconnaissance trips taken by R.C. Harris. The maps are both historic and those drawn up by Harris for his trips, incorporating old trails on current maps. While the inclusive dates of the map collection are from 1835 - 1981, the majority of these maps were created from 1880 -1930.

MacMillan Bloedel Ltd. traces its roots in B.C. to 1911 with the establishment of Bloedel, Stewart & Welch. In 1919, Harvey MacMillan, along with W.J. VanDusen, established the H.R. MacMillan Export Company. Ltd. to sell British Columbia lumber on the world market. In 1951, the two companies joined to form MacMillan & Bloedel Ltd. The merger made the company one of the largest firms in the world engaged in both the production and sale of lumber. The 1960 amalgamation with the Powell River Company made the newly formed MacMillan, Bloedel and Powell River Company one of North America's largest producers of newsprint. The name Powell River was removed from the corporate title at the annual general meeting of 1966 and the company became MacMillan Bloedel Ltd. The fonds consists of textual records, photographs and albums from the early 1900's onward, maps of British Columbia, and items collected for display purposes.

The Pacific Region of the Insurers' Advisory Organization traces its roots in British Columbia back to 1890 with the formation of B.C. Fire Underwriters' Association and the Vancouver Board of Fire Underwriters and became the Insurers' Advisory Organization in 1974. The fonds consists of minutes, financial records, inspection records, printed material, constitutions, by-laws, and correspondence of the association, as well as maps of cities and towns in B.C. relate to the inspection reports of buildings in those centres.

Western Forest Products Incorporated is a major harvesting and lumber manufacturing company operating in the coastal regions of British Columbia. As of 2016, Western Forest Products consists of acquisitions from a variety of other forestry companies such as MacMillan Bloedel, Weyerhaeuser, Canadian Pacific, and Canfor. The collection reflects the forestry operations and projects undertaken by Western Forest Products and their predecessors. The majority of the material dates to the 1980s, with some material dating to as early as the 1950s and as late as the early 2000s. There are three main types of material in the collection: textual records, maps, and microfiche.

In 1999, the Chung family made an exceptional gift to the University of British Columbia Library, with their donation of The Wallace B. Chung and Madeline H. Chung Collection. In making a generous gift of this unique and extensive research collection, Dr. Chung gives back to Canada something of what he and his family have gained since his grandfather came from China to settle in Victoria more than 100 years ago. The collection consists of documents, archival records, photographs, ephemera and artifacts related to three broad themes: British Columbia history, immigration and settlement and the Canadian Pacific Railway Company.