At the University of British Columbia Library, Rare Books and Special Collections acquires archival materials in all media documenting the economic, political, cultural, labour, and artistic history of British Columbia and Canada, in order to facilitate primary research in these areas. For more information and a detailed listing of the more than 700 archival collections, please go to http://rbscarchives.library.ubc.ca/index.php/
In the University Archives' collection, you will find institutional records which document the history of the University of British Columbia, as well as related organizations such as the Alumni Association and the Alma Mater Society. Also included are personal archives of individuals closely associated with the University, such as faculty, administrators, and alumni. For more information on the University Archives' collection, please go to http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives
Angeli-Dennis Collection
This collection features papers of the Rosetti family and the Pre-Raphaelites. It consists of the diaries (1855-1913), manuscripts, financial records, and correspondence of William Michael Rossetti (1829-1919). It also includes the manuscripts, correspondence, and financial records of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1842-1882), Christina Georgina Rossetti (1853-1894), Ford Madox Brown (1852-1993), Gabriele Rossetti, other members of the Rossetti family, and other Pre-Raphaelites, such as Robert Browning.
See the Angeli-Dennis Collection page in the English Literature research guide for more information about the collection.
See the finding aid for more information about the collection and to find materials to request at our reading room.
Wallace B. Chung and Madeline H. Chung Collection
Containing over 25,000 items including books, documents, photographs, pamphlets, maps and artifacts, the Chung Collection covers three main subject areas: Early British Columbia history; immigration and settlement, especially centred around the Chinese-Canadian experience; and the Canadian Pacific Railway Company.
See the finding aid for more information about the collection and to find materials to request at our reading room.
The Chung Collection can also be searched through its own website. The website also houses additional resources including a virtual tour and video series about the collection.
Many items from the collection have been digitized and can be searched through Open Collections.
Douglas Coupland fonds
Douglas Coupland is an accomplished novelist, graphic designer, journalist, visual artist, playwright, and filmmaker. The fonds includes: drafts of Coupland’s major literary works, personal and artistic photographs, visual art material, items of clothing and leather goods, technical notes and designs for Coupland’s website, conceptual sketches and designs, correspondence, and other records.
See the finding aid for more information about the fonds and to find materials to request at our reading room.
Japanese Canadian Research Collection
The Japanese Canadian research collection consists of approximately 50 small collections donated by the following individuals and organizations: Yoshimitsu Akagawa, Rintaro Hayashi, Japanese Fishermen's Benevolent Association, Kishizo Kimura, Masajiro Miyazaki, Japanese Canadian Citizens' Association, Hideichi Nosaka, Yoshio Ono, Yukio Shimoda, Rinkichi Tagashira, Shingeichi Uchibori, Chiyo Umezuki, Tokikazu Tanaka, Yasutaro Yamaga, Tameo Kanabara, Richmond Berry Growers Association, Shogo Kobayashi, Skeena Fishermen's Association, Jisaburo Wakabayashi, J. Uno, Camp and Mill Workers Federal Labour Union, and Mitsuru Shimpo. The collection encompasses a wide range of topics, including: relocation to internment camps during WWII; farming; lumbering; religious activities; personal reminiscences; and various organizational records. Individual collections have been arranged and described separately and filed in alphabetical order. Most of the manuscript material has been photocopied from original documents.
See the finding aid for more information about the collection and to find materials to request at our reading room.
Roughly six hundred photographs have been digitized to form the Japanese Canadian Photograph Collection (JCPC) on Open Collections. While the JCPC documents a wide range of the experiences of Canadians of Japanese descent in British Columbia, the resource is particularly strong in chronicling their treatment during World War II. Learn more about this collection and browse digitized photographs here.
John Keenlyside Legal Research Collection
The fonds consists of legal documents collected by John Keenlyside. The materials give insight into the formation of British Columbia's legal system when it consisted of two colonies. The legal records (including writs, testimony, judgements, and other court documents) were produced by judges, magistrates, defendants, claimants, and other relevant parties. Some figures of historical significance who created legal records in this fonds include the first judge in BC, the first Attorney General, and BC's earliest clergy, businessmen, and other prominent figures from the colonial period. The series entitled “Japanese Canadian historical documents, 1946-1947” contains documents created by civil rights organizations concerned with Japanese Canadian rights.
See the finding aid for more information about the collection and to find materials to request at our reading room.
Some materials from this collection have been digitized and can be searched through Open Collections
Joy Kogawa fonds
Joy Nozomi Kogawa (nee Nakayama) is a renowned writer who was born in Vancouver, B.C. in 1935 to Japanese Canadian parents. In addition to the honorary degrees she received from Ryerson Polytechnical Institute and the University of Lethbridge in 1991, Kogawa has been granted degrees from Simon Fraser University, Laurentian University, and the University of British Columbia. She has won many awards for her 1981 novel, Obasan, which chronicles the internment and persecution of citizens of Japanese descent by the Canadian government during WWII, all from the perspective of a child. For her work, she was awarded the Order of Canada in 1986. The fonds consists of material related to Kogawa's writing projects, her personal life, her involvement in community organizations, and her participation in literary, cultural, and human rights conferences and events.
See the finding aid for more information about the fonds and to find materials to request at our reading room.
Uno Langmann Family Collection of B.C. Photographs
The Uno Langmann Family Collection of B.C. Photographs, donated by Uno and Dianne Langmann and Uno Langmann Limited, consists of more than 20,000 rare and unique early photographs from the 1850s to the 1970s. The collection includes photographs in a wide variety of formats and genres including albums, diaries, portraits, landscapes, and city/townscapes. It is considered the premiere private collection of early provincial photos, and an important illustrated history of early photographic methods. The photographs were taken by a wide range of photographers. Some well-known photographers represented in the collection include William Notman, Charles MacMunn, Frederick Dally, Charles Horetzky, Charles Gentile, Philip Timms, Yucho Chow, R. Maynard, and Leonard Frank.
See the finding aid for more information about the fonds and to find materials to request at our reading room.
The digital collection, searchable through Open Collections, is a subset of a larger collection donated by Uno and Dianne Langmann and Uno Langmann Limited, which consists of more than 18,000 rare and unique early photographs from the 1850s to the 1970s.
Malcolm Lowry collection
Malcolm Lowry was born in 1909 in Birkenhead, England. By the age of 30, when he had arrived in British Columbia, he had received a B.A. in English from Cambridge University, published a novel and traveled to the United States and Mexico. By this time he had begun work on his major novel Under the Volcano. In 1940 he married Margerie Bonner. For the next fifteen years he resided primarily in Dollarton, North Vancouver and traveled abroad before returning to England. His final home was in Sussex, where he died in 1957. From the time he came to British Columbia until his death, Lowry wrote novels, short stories, radio and film scripts and poetry. UBC Library has been collecting literary works and archival materials associated with Malcolm Lowry since it acquired Lowry's papers in 1984.
See the Malcolm Lowry page of the Canadian Literature research guide and the Malcolm Lowry research guide to learn more about Malcolm Lowry and RBSC's collections.
The Malcolm Lowry Fonds contains Lowry's manuscripts, correspondence, photographs, and other materials. See the finding aid to learn more about the fonds and to find materials to request at our reading room.
RBSC also holds the Malcolm Lowry Collection, which includes works by Malcolm Lowry (1909-1957) in various editions and translations; all first editions are present. Also included are critical and biographical works with some Lowry content. Books from Lowry's own library form part of the collection. The chronological emphasis is from the 1930s to the present. Search UBC Library catalogue for "Malcolm Lowry's Personal Library Collection" to browse this collection.
Florence Nightingale letters
Popularly known as the founder of modern nursing, Florence Nightingale became renowned for her professional nursing and training of nurses during the Crimean War, establishment of her nursing school at St. Thomas' Hospital in London, improvement of hygiene and sanitization standards in hospitals, pioneering of data visualization and statistics, advocacy and social reforms, and more. This collection contains correspondence relating to Florence Nightingale. The majority of the letters are addressed to Nightingale while others are sent from her or involve other correspondents discussing Nightingale. Letters date from 1877 to 1965. There are also newspaper clippings, transcripts, notes, and envelopes that all relate to Florence Nightingale, as well as photographs of Florence Nightingale and prominent people in her life.
See the finding aid to learn more about the fonds and to find materials to request at our reading room.
Digitized letters are searchable on Open Collections.
If you're interested in archival materials on a particular subject, check out the Rare Books and Special Collections research guides to find more about our holdings and how to find and access materials.