Thanks to funding from the British Columbia History Digitization Program (BCHDP) and the Friends of the Vancouver City Archives, an additional 5,122 photographs by commercial photographer Don Coltman are now digitized and freely available on the City of Vancouver Archives’ website.
With this new batch, there are now more than 15,000 digitized Coltman photographs available to research.
Most of the photos show Vancouver and the Lower Mainland in the post-WWII period. Industry, small business, sports and community activities, buildings, streetscapes, portraiture, and Vancouver’s natural environment are all represented. A search for other provinces, such as Alberta and Saskatchewan, will produce dozens of results.
All of the images are in the public domain and are available to be downloaded, reprinted and used.
Don Coltman was manager of Steffens-Colmer Studio from 1941-1943. In 1944 he took over the business and operated under the company name Steffens-Colmer Ltd. until 1951. From 1951 to 1954 he operated the business under Don Coltman Photographic Company. In 1955 he closed the business and sold his photograph collection to Donn Williams. Williams Bros. Photographers Ltd. used these photographic records as stock photographs to compliment their own photographic records. Mr. Coltman died in 1963.
