The Royal BC Museum has opened up to the public 16,103 historical photographs depicting Indigenous communities from across British Columbia that were taken between the late 1800s and the 1970s.
“At last, the majority of photographs of Indigenous communities from the Royal BC Museum collections are available to the public digitally, and the names of Indigenous individuals who appear in the photos are easily searchable,” said Prof. Jack Lohman, CEO of the Royal BC Museum.
The digitization process, which started in May 2018 and ended in April 2020, included scanning the back of each photo, which is mounted on an index card. Each index card, with an image on the front and text on the back, resembles a postcard.
In many cases, the back of the photo has been annotated with detailed, specific descriptions of locations, people and objects in the photographs — often provided by community and family members who know more about the images than anyone else.
To view these images, visitors can go to http://search-collections.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/Ethnology, type “pn” into the Catalogue Number field and click search. People can also search by Culture (e.g. Haida) or a specific Community.
The Royal BC Museum anticipates the image scans will be of value and significance for Indigenous community members, researchers and learners alike, but the museum’s priority has been on the Indigenous communities.
Royal BC Museum staff have facilitated private, in-person access by Indigenous community members and researchers to the images, and recognizing the value (and impermanence) of knowledge, for more than 50 years visitors and staff have annotated the back of the index cards with information they feel is relevant.
Now, with the data digitized and online, people can type in information, such as a family member’s name, and download scanned images and other vital information.
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