thirsty horses in old Vancouver – courtesy of the LAC
Toronto. No foolin’ – a great way to discover the history of your town or city is through old photographs. And a great way to find old photographs is to visit your local archive – or the Library and Archives Canada (LAC).
An example is the left/above photograph of the horses watering at a city provided watering hole in downtown Vancouver many decades ago.
Archive photos can also help you date photos in your collection, as Ken Nelson said in his November, 2000 talk, “Dead Trees Don’t Fall Up (DTDFU)” – on identifying Niagara Falls photos by the trees around the Falls. Not only trees, but clothing, architecture, landscape, etc can all help narrow down a likely date.
My thanks once again goes to my good friend and fellow PHSC member, George Dunbar, for his never ending search for photographic history in books, magazines, archives and libraries and his willingness to share his efforts.
