“Just imagine….” he muttered, staring at a Canadian six pence stamp of 1851. He compared the engraved portrait of Prince Albert on the stamp with the larger image on a steel engraving collected many years earlier. The collector was quietly studying this stamp by kerosene lighting in his Vancouver Island home at Deerholme. And he […]
Designing the Six Pence Prince Albert Stamp Read More »
In the early 1970s, when I was a graduate student at Michigan State University, I visited an underwhelming little stamp shop in Lansing and purchased their entire stock of (two) Canadian covers. One was an illustrated brewery cover from Phoenix, BC. After retiring to Victoria, I finally got around to looking at that cover again
The Phoenix Biner Brewery Read More »
Gerald Wellburn was probably the most accomplished philatelist and postal historian British Columbia has ever produced. His interests also included railways and logging, automobiles and paper ephemera of all types. Another of his gifts was a great understanding and dynamic sense of history. His British Columbia and Vancouver Island exhibit won the Grand Award at
Gerald Wellburn Exhibit Pages Read More »
I hope you are avoiding all this Covid horror. We don’t think it’s reached Quadra yet but Amanda and I still wear our masks at all times and I’ve been self-isolating nearly every day out in my boat, fishing, where I never see another human! Tom Watkins kindly sent me the latest of your newsletters
Early Hibben Picture Post Card from Heriot Bay Read More »
One of my collections consists of Numeral-Issue era (1898 to 1903) used Canadian view post cards. I especially like B.C. views. Here are two Vancouver Island cards that I obtained recently—both published by T.N. Hibben & Co. of Victoria (identified by the characteristic printing of the address side and by the company name in small
Three Early Hibben Picture Post Cards Read More »
This commercial postcard (overrated by 1¢) was mailed in Oakland, California on August 11, 1897. It was sent to Gabriola Island through Nanaimo (April 14). The addressee is Reverend George William Taylor (C.R.S.C. F.Z.S. 1854-1912). Born in Derby, England, Taylor came to Canada in 1882. He was ordained by the Church of England in 1884
United States to Gabriola Island, 1897 Read More »
This real-photo picture post card was purchased at VicTopical in early March 2020. The address side is a regular Warwick Brother & Rutter design. The card shows BC Electric Company’s interurban No. 1304 at Edmonds and Kingsway, stopped on its way to New Westminster. The occasion was the visit to Vancouver of the Governor-General of
BC Electric Special Trip – 1912 Read More »
I came to Victoria in 1917. My first home was on Willows Road at the entrance to the Victoria Exhibition grounds. Our house was on the right side of the entrance gates. Willows tram #11 came east up Cadboro Bay Road, turned west onto Willows north and entered an oval area, then back to town.
B.C. Post Offices: Willowpark – Military and Civilian Read More »
In Biblical times, God wrote messages on stone to His people and laid down instructions and guides for those generations. In comparatively modern times, man was to write in steel on mountain passes, across chasms, in valley beds and through the wildest country in southern Canada, in winter and in summer. Twin bands of steel
B.C. Post Offices: Calgary & Vancouver R.P.O. Read More »
Vancouver Island was one of the early spots in British Columbia’s history, and political events focused the spotlight on Victoria, the first settlement, on the tip of the Island. The Hudson’s Bay Company had to leave Astoria, on the Columbia River, and establish a new settlement, due to the heavy influx of settlers to that
B.C. Post Offices: North Saanich Read More »
