CALL NUMBER: T1292:0001 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1962-03 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Duncan McTavish, a grandson of Dr. J.S. Helmcken, talks about the history of View Royal; the Helmcken family property in the area; Rosebank; growing up on Vancouver Island; the McTavish family; early Victoria; Dr. Helmcken's arrival in Victoria and his early visit to Fort Rupert; the building of Helmcken House; Beacon Hill Park; the Caledonia grounds; Christmas and New Year at Helmcken H;ouse; Lady Douglas and the Work family. TRACK 2: Mr. McTavish continues with a discussion of the children and grandchildren of Dr. J.S. Helmcken; the John Work family; the Tolmie family; the Crease ;family; the Judge Drake family; the J.D. Pemberton family; Senator Macdonald's family; Dr. Davie's family; Dave Todd; John Weiler; W.J. Pendray; W. & J. Wilson; the Spencers; other Victoria families; ;Victoria as a tourist centre; garden tours; the John Tod house; relations between Victoria and Vancouver; the Point Ellice Bridge disaster.

CALL NUMBER: T1292:0002 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1962-11 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Taped on location at Helmcken House, Mr. McTavish talks about the house and its contents, including pictures and furniture. He discusses the construction of Helmcken House; the Douglas fami;ly; Christmas dinner parties; the Helmcken family; Dr. Helmcken's daily activities; his medical practice; his garden and New Year's Eve. TRACK 2: Mr. McTavish continues with a description of the are a around the Helmcken and Douglas houses; life at Helmcken house; and Dr. J.S. Helmcken's character.

Footage. Island Tug & Barge vessels and operations on the BC coast and the open Pacific. The first roll, which relates specifically to the operation of the tugs "Sudbury" and "Sudbury II", comprises outs from the film SAGA OF THE SUDBURYS (shot by tug skipper W.H. Blagborne and produced by Parry Films for IT&B). The second roll (which does not relate to the SUDBURY film) shows a barge removing the span of the old Point Ellice Bridge in Victoria; the opening of the new bridge in 1957; a tug towing a scow to Nitinat Bar; the tug "Lloyd B. Gore" towing the old sternwheeler "Delta King" to San Francisco; the "Island Sovereign" towing a dredge platform at sea; vessels at dock in Victoria.

RECORDED: Victoria (B.C.), 1962-03-29 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mrs. Ford talks about her father, Charles E. Redfern, and his arrival and life in Victoria; early days in Victoria; the family house along the harbour; May 24 regattas; Beacon Hill Park; shops; Indians; sports; miners from the Cariboo and the Klondike gold rushes; schooling; her father, Mayor Redfern; World War I and Victoria yesterday and today. TRACK 2: Mrs. Ford discusses clothing in 1900; city elections; Victoria today and yesterday; St. John's Church; the Point Ellice Bridge disaster; the mud flats; Pendray's Soap Works; Indians and "Snooks".

SUMMARY: This program features recollections of Victoria's famous annual celebration of the Queen's birthday -- and of the disaster which marred the May 24th weekend in 1906. The voices heard include: Mrs. F.G. Hood, Mr. Roger Monteith, Walter Engelhardt, and Louis Young.

RECORDED: [location unknown], 1962-06-21 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mrs. Pinder (nee Irving) recalls the early planting of broom on Vancouver Island. She talks about her grandfather, W.O. Hamley, his brother, Sir Edward Hamley; Dr. J.S. Helmcken; the Pemberton family; riding and driving horses; Sir Matthew Baillie Begbie; her father, Judge Irving; horse racing in Victoria; paper chases; and old houses and families. TRACK 2: Mrs. Pinder talks about the Pooley family; the Royal Navy; early Vancouver and the Dunsmuir family. Mr. Pinder talks about his great uncle, Sir Joseph Trutch, his father was an engineer with the C.P.R.; his father's work for Dunsmuir, and his bringing out the Confederation papers in 1871; the Fairfield estate; Point Ellice Bridge disaster; his father's survey of Port Moody; recreation in Victoria and early Vancouver. Mrs. Pinder continues with recollections about sports in Victoria; gardens; walking; winters; and Foul Bay.

RECORDED: [location unknown], 1962-05-18 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Florence Scarth (wife of Harry C. Scarth) talks about her memories and impressions of Emily Carr; the arrival of Mrs. Scarth's parents in BC; her trip to the Skeena; early Victoria; James Bay; the mud flats; Government Street; saloons; stores; residences; Chinese servants; the Indian reserve; Indian fishmongers; Chinese vegetable gardeners; milkmen; the Point Ellice Bridge disaster; the Klondike gold rush; other memories. [TRACK 2: blank.]

CALL NUMBER: T1290:0001 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1962-03-27 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Nellie, Mrs. F.G. Hood, talks about her childhood in early Victoria; her father, Colonel Prior, was an MP in the federal parliament, the premier of BC and Lieutenant Governor. She recalls memories of early James Bay; Judge Matthew Begbie; social occasions; musicals; streets in Victoria; the old Victoria Theatre; the Chinese Theatre; musical life; the Royal Navy; entertaining; Indians selling salmon; May 24 celebrations; impressions of Victoria; visits to San Francisco; Victoria and the Yukon gold rush; and changes in Victoria from 1906 to 1930. TRACK 2: Mrs. Hood speaks about her ;father, Colonel Prior; a visit to Seattle; San Francisco's influence on Victoria; Victoria's architecture and furnishings; Government House and other large houses; Rudyard Kipling and other notables; ;James Bay residents; her grandfather, John Work; the Gorge residents; her father in public life in Ottawa and Victoria; disreputable characters; riding; camping; and schooling at Angela College.

CALL NUMBER: T1290:0002 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1962-03-27 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mrs. Hood continues with recollections about local characters, Jenny and Jimmy Chickens; the chain gang; the Point Ellice Bridge disaster; Lady Douglas; May 24 celebrations; Christmas celebrations; her father in politics; elections; childhood pets; and her views on Victoria today. [TRACK 2: blank.]

Television stock shots. Footage of automobile traffic on the highway near Victoria; on Bay Street and Point Ellice Bridge. Also traffic and parking in downtown Victoria, especially Yates Street and Yates Street parkade.

CALL NUMBER: T1291:0001 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1962-03-29 & 31 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Walter Engelhardt talks about May 24 celebrations in Victoria; the sham battle at Queen Victoria's Jubilee 1887; the Point Ellice Bridge disaster in 1896; regattas and incidents involving the Royal Navy; building the Parliament Buildings. TRACK 2: Mr. Engelhardt speaks about the Bird Cages and Birdcage Walk; mud flats and the building of the Empress Hotel; the condition of the streets; butcher shops and grocery stores; the smallpox epidemic; the garbage dump in the mud flats; the Pendray Soap Works; the Songhees Indian reserve; stories about Herman the Magician; the Victoria Theatre and the Pantages Theatre.

CALL NUMBER: T1291:0002 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1962-03-29 & 31 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mr. Engelhardt continues with his recollections about the Victoria Theatre; performances of the play "Uncle Tom's Cabin"; theatre life in Victoria; prostitutes; Victoria's families; the Macdonald family; the Dunsmuirs; the Pembertons; the Pearse estate; the Hudson's Bay Company's land policy in British Columbia; subdivision of the Crease estate; the land boom of 1910 to 1912; a Hugo Ross anecdote; Dunsmuir Castle. TRACK 2: Mr. Engelhardt talks about his recollections about the sham battle of the May 24; his job at the City of Victoria collecting water rates; arrival of his mother and grandfather, Captain John Mount Thain, in Victoria in 1862; his father's arrival in 1862, and work as a steamship agent; his father's origins in Austria; Walter Engelhardt's experiences at the canneries at the mouth of the Skeena in 1892; Cunningham; Victoria businessmen; stores in Victoria; Chinese opium manufacturing and trade 1880 to 1890.

CALL NUMBER: T1291:0003 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1962-03-29 & 31 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mr. Englehardt recalls the Klondike gold rush; Victoria as a "wide-open town"; his work in the assay office; effects of the "wide-open" policy on Victoria; the "gay nineties" in Victoria; Victoria's boom from 1900 to 1915; wealthy retired people in Victoria; comments about Vancouver and the CPR. [TRACK 2: blank.]