The occasion of the Centennial provides us with the opportunity to learn more about UBC’s remarkable story. The Legacy Project website is a rich archive of resources online which provides a spoken and visual record of the people who have made important contributions to every area of UBC’s activities–students, faculty, staff, alumni and Board members.
2015 also marks the Library’s 100th anniversary and special programming has been developed to commemorate the occasion, such as an exhibition of selected pieces from the Uno Langmann Family Collection of BC Photographs. This collection of BC photographs, which has never been exhibited before, consists of more than 18,000 rare and unique early photographs dating from the 1850s to the 1970s. This extraordinary collection of over 18,000 rare historical photographs was recently donated to UBC’s Rare Books and Special Collections, housed in the Main Library. Primarily of British Columbia, the scope of this rich material brings to light new perspectives on the early history of the province and the significant impact of the camera in the development of “New World” settlements. Including albumen prints from the first geological surveys, hand-coloured panoramic landscapes, studio portraits, family albums and postcards, the collection reflects developments in the technologies and purposes of photography. In March 2016, Presentation House Gallery in North Vancouver will launch an exhibition and publication culled from the collection that focuses on early views of British Columbia from the 1860s to the early twentieth century.
The foundation stone of the Beaty Biodiversity Museum was laid when the UBC Herbarium was created by John ‘Botany’ Davidson in 1916; it was one of the first institutions to be established in the new University of British Columbia. This milestone will be celebrated through the 100 Years, 100 Treasures: A Celebration of 100 Years of Biodiversity exhibition which will open the cabinets of the Museum’s collections to pull out 100 spectacular natural history specimens. The unique stories of these objects will be shared and the public will be invited to participate by contributing their reflections about those objects. The exhibition opens on May 28, 2016.
CiTR 101.9 FM is the broadcasting voice of the University of British Columbia, beginning as a student club in 1937, and gaining not-for-profit status and a place on the FM dial in 1982. CiTR offers students and community members broadcast training and access to the airwaves, broadcasting 100+ locally-focused radio programs in seven different languages, streamed online and available as podcasts. An Audio Evolution of UBC is a two-part project. CiTR has partnered with the UBC Library Digitization Centre to digitize CiTR’s historic audio collection as archive-quality recordings, shared publicly through UBC Library’s digital collection. Once the collection is digitized, CiTR will create a series of radio documentaries showing the evolution of UBC from past to present.
