Showing 5 results

The sub-series consists of episodes from the first series of "Living Memory", a CBC Vancouver radio program about people and places in British Columbia history, based on oral history interviews recorded by Imbert Orchard. Four series aired from 1961 to 1964. The first series, broadcast from March 9 to May 29, 1961, dealt with early days in the Skeena and Bulkley region (via the recollections of Constance Cox and Sperry Cline), as well as early days in Vancouver.

The sub-series consists of 121 songs recorded on 14 audio reels. The recordings capture Mungo Martin’s performances of Kwakwaka-wakw songs of his own personal family and surrounding communities. Many songs relate to other social and cultural topics and events within the cultural and community locations of Kwakwaka-wakw territory on Northern Vancouver Island and the adjacent North Coast of BC. Many of Martin’s performances concern the Matilpi tribe. These include songs from locations on Gilford Island, Kingcom Inlet, Knight Inlet, Fort Rupert, Cape Mudge, Turnour Island and Comox. Songs relate to the Lekwiltok, Nimpkish, Gilford Island, Nahwitti and Kwakiutl tribes.

Halpern possibly learned of Mungo Martin during her 1947 recording sessions with Chief Billy Assu. During discussions, Chief Assu recommends Martin to Halpern as an excellent source of traditional music [recording session, T-4339-143]. Halpern’s formal introduction to Mungo Martin seems to have come through Dorothy MacNair (née Livesay). In a letter dated June 18, 1951 Livesay wrote to Halpern:

Another man who should be recorded is Mungo Martin, the totem carver now working at UBC Totem Park. He has a workshop there. He sings a “totem carvers song” and a “song for making boxes.” He believes that the Indian songs should be recorded. [“MacNair to Halpern,” June 18, 1951, Halpern fonds, AdMss. 2768, box 12, file 6.]

The recordings began in August 1951 less than two months after this letter. As noted in the letter, Mungo Martin journeyed with his wife Abayah to Vancouver to work on the University of British Columbia’s totem pole restauration project. The project began in 1950. It lasted two years. Halpern befriended the Martin’s during this time. He and Abayah were frequent guests at the Halpern’s home on West 37th Street. Halpern recorded most of Martin’s performances at her home on a reel to reel recorder. Martin’s performances were the first Halpern recorded directly onto a reel tape recorder. Until this time she had recorded on a disk cutter and migrated copies onto reel dissemination for publication and sharing with other scholars for discussion. Ida Halpern held Mungo Martin in very high regard. She often referred to him as “the most outstanding carver and singer of his generation.”

The sub-series consists of photographs of Prince George, Chetwynd, Prince Rupert, Dawson Creek, the Alaska Highway, Roberts Bank and Vancouver. The sub-series contains four files numbered from K-1 to K-4.

The sub-series consist of oral history interviews about the history of Vancouver, North Vancouver and West Vancouver from the the time of the Vancouver fire (1886) to the First World War. Secondary themes include the history of vaudeville in Vancouver (particularly the work of B.C. Hilliam) and the eccentric Vancouver journalist J. Francis Bursill.

The sub-series consists of interviews and radio programs about the early days of Vancouver, ca. 1880-1920. The interviews were recorded by Laurence Nowry, who also wrote and narrated the broadcasts.