Series GR-4099 - Bureau of Mines negatives and lantern slides

Title and statement of responsibility area

Title proper

Bureau of Mines negatives and lantern slides

General material designation

  • graphic material

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Title notes

  • Source of title proper: Title based on the contents of the series.

Level of description

Series

Reference code

GR-4099

Edition area

Edition statement

Edition statement of responsibility

Class of material specific details area

Statement of scale (cartographic)

Statement of projection (cartographic)

Statement of coordinates (cartographic)

Statement of scale (architectural)

Issuing jurisdiction and denomination (philatelic)

Dates of creation area

Date(s)

  • [ca. 190-] - 1953 (Creation)
    Creator
    British Columbia. Bureau of Mines

Physical description area

Physical description

1240 photographs : b&w

Publisher's series area

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Archival description area

Name of creator

(1895-1934)

Biographical history

Custodial history

Scope and content

The series consists of photographs (lantern slides and a few glass or flexible negatives) created by the offices of the Bureau of Mines and the Dept. of Mines between ca. 1900 and 1953. The photographs depict all aspects of Bureau activities including surveys and inspections. Many of the glass negatives were taken by W.F. Robertson and H.T. Nation of the Bureau of Mines and were often used for annual reports and other publications. The bulk of the photographs are glass lantern slides, either made from Bureau of Mines photographs or copied from other sources. Photographer Edgar Fleming took or copied many of the photographs for the Department. These slides show mines and mining operations and equipment; mining camps, first aid teams, refineries, smelters, coke ovens, concentrators, railways and rail trestles; boats, landscape and terrain features including coast, rivers and mountain ranges and aerial views. There are also a significant number of maps and technical drawings.

Occasionally other photographer initials M.S.H., S.S.H. and W.H.M. are noted on the slides. There are 63 slides of South African mines and general views, 23 slides of the Alcan Kemano project from 1953 and various portraits scattered throughout the series, as well as ca. 115 aerial views from the 1930s, many with their own numbering scheme.

The series also includes an additional 38 glass lantern slides from the 1920s, alienated from the main run of lantern slides and transferred separately. Most of these slides were made of photographs taken by Edgar Fleming for the Bureau of Mines but also include some slides of maps and technical drawings.

Notes area

Physical condition

Immediate source of acquisition

Transferred from the Dept. of Mines in 1976 and 1978 (accessioned in 1984) and 1988.

Arrangement

While some runs of the slides have sequential alpha-numeric codes, there are no known indexes. The majority of the slides are unnumbered or numbered randomly. It appears that the Department gathered the records together haphazardly and stored them before transferring them to the BC Archives in the 1970s.

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Terms governing use, reproduction, and publication

Associated materials

For related records see:
GR-3264 Bureau of Mines photograph albums
GR-3353 Bureau of Mines, Mineral Survey and Mineralogical Branch photographs

Related materials

Accruals

General note

Accession number(s): 198410-004, 198809-008

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