Rare Books and Special Collections

Photograph Collections

There are a few different ways and places to search for photographs in Rare Books and Special Collections:

Manuscript Collection Photographs
BC Historical Photos Catalogue
UBC Library Digital Collections

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Manuscript Collection Photographs

To search for photographs from a specific manuscript collection:

1. Start a new search in the UBC library catalogue
2. Limit location to Rare Books and Special Collections
3. Enter “photograph? and fonds and [name of fonds]” as your search terms
   For example:
   photograph? and fonds and alvey
4. Select Keyword (USE and, or, not, “a phrase”) as search type

You can also search by keyword, although your results may not be as relevant as searching by fonds name.
To search for photographs on a specific subject from any manuscript collection:

1. Start a new search in the UBC library catalogue
2. Limit location to Rare Books and Special Collections
3. Enter “photograph? and fonds and [keyword]” as your search terms
   For example:
   photograph? and fonds and logging
4. Select Keyword (USE and, or, not, “a phrase”) as search type

Once you've found the manuscript collection you want to look in, you might want to look at the detailed inventory, which will often provide more information about the photographs in the collection. Inventories are linked from the manuscript collection section of the RBSC site, at http://www.library.ubc.ca/spcoll/mss_col.html .

Some of the photographs from our manuscript collection are included in the UBC Library Digital Collections database and in the BC Historical Photos catalogue. To be sure your search is comprehensive, you should search in all locations.

Searching for Photographs in RBSC Manuscript Collections [tutorial]

Javascript disabled -> Click here to start the tutorial

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BC Historical Photos Catalogue

In Rare Books and Special Collections, the historical photograph collection includes almost 200,000 photographs documenting the early history of British Columbia, peoples, places and events. The photographs range in date from the mid-1800's to the mid-1900's.

The catalogue of photographs contains approximately 2,000 records describing almost 200,000 photographs. The catalogue records may describe single photographs, photograph albums or collections of photographs. For example, there is one record for the Fisherman Publishing Society collection of 20,000 photographs.

Some of the photographs in the larger collections have been digitized and are available and searchable in the UBC Digital Resources database. As the descriptions of the photographs were done by students in the 1970's, there are sometimes inconsistencies within the catalogue records. We recommend, therefore, that you search for photographs on your topic using keywords.

To search for photographs in the BC Historical Photos collection:

1. Start a new search in the UBC Library Catalogue
2. Click on the Other Catalogues tab at the top of the page.
3. Select Archives, Bibliographies and Reading Rooms from the Local Catalogues list and click Connect
4. Click on the Set Limits button in the bottom right hand corner
5. Scroll down the Location list and select BC Historical Photos
6. Click on the Set Limits button
7. Start your search

Once you have searched the catalogue, to view a photograph, record the BC number located in the ID No. field (e.g. BC 413). A staff member in Rare Books and Special Collections would be happy to retrieve the photograph for you.

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UBC Library Digital Collections and Services

The University of British Columbia Rare Books and Special Collections is digitizing its photographic holdings in order to make the images available to researchers on the World Wide Web. 

The project includes both University Archives photographs and B.C. Historical Collection (non-UBC) photographs.  Together the collections total approximately 200,000 photographic images (both prints and negatives).

More than 30,000 images have been digitized and placed online.  Digitized collections include photographs from the University of British Columbia , the Fisherman Publishing Society, Macmillan Bloedel Ltd., Capilano Timber Co. the Peter B. Anderson Collection, and the Japanese Canadian Research Collection.  Together, they document a diverse range of activities and events from the history of British Columbia.

To search for photographs in the UBC Library Digital Collections:

1. Connect to the UBC Library Digital Collections database.
2. Choose the "advanced search" link to search within the various digital collections.
3. Enter your keywords in the search box(es).
4. Choose specfic collections to search in or "select all". Click the search button to start your search.
5. Click on the image to read more about it.
6. If you would like to view or copy the original image, bring the image number to library staff with your request.

Searching for Photographs in UBC Library Digital Collections [tutorial]

Javascript disabled -> Click here to start the tutorial

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Copyright Note

Please note that access to these photographic images and the technical capacity to download them does not imply permission for re-use.
Written permission to publish or otherwise use these images must be obtained from the Rare Books and Special Collections, UBC Library.