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Canada's Sherlock Holmes

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The Vancouver Historical Society Newsletter Preserving and promoting the history of Vancouver since 1936 HS Vol. 57 No. 6 | March 2018 | ISSN 0823-0161 Vance’s experiments with odours cemented his reputation as Canada’s Sherlock Holmes. PROVINCE, JULY 7, 1934. Canada’s Sherlock Holmes came known across North America in the February Speaker: By Michael Kluckner 1920s and 1930s as “Canada’s Sherlock Eve Lazarus Holmes,” is one example. She first noticed ve Lazarus, our March speaker, has him at the 1944 murder scene of 24-year- Ontario. And so it went as she researched Edeveloped a kind of trademark: a old Jennie Conroy in West Vancouver and wrote an original book weaving to- reference to an interesting character in a when she was writing her 2015 bestseller gether Vancouver’s history, its murderous newspaper clipping or directory prompts Cold Case Vancouver. underbelly, and an unsung good-guy who research in public archives followed by a She found his granddaughter, who retired from the Vancouver Police Depart- painstaking search for descendants, lead- had his daughter’s scrapbook, then card- ment almost 70 years ago. ing to a trove of almost-forgotten histori- board boxes full of photographs, clippings History-writing in Vancouver and cal material that allows her to bring the and case notes in another grandchild’s ga- elsewhere has become more specialized, past alive. rage on Gabriola Island. She then needed moving away from the idea of a master The extraordinary tale of John a crash course in forensics and engaged narrative into such genres as architecture, F.C.B. Vance, who independently devel- the help of Douglas Lucas, the former oped forensic science techniques and be- head of the Centre for Forensic Science in CONTINUED INSIDE NEXT MEETING: Thursday, March 22, 2018 at the Museum of Vancouver Get Your Tickets Now! President’s Notes he city’s 132nd birthday Tis approaching in early April, an event we celebrate each year with a luncheon at the University Golf Club on Musqueam-owned land. We haven’t been in the habit of trumpeting in advance the Award of Merit winner but will make an exception this year for someone many of you know: Bruce Watson. Bruce worked on the VHS board from 2003 until his Bruce Watson draws a book prize ticket from Alan Sung at our retirement last year; he was president from 2007–10 and 2017 Incorporation Day Luncheon. PHOTO BY FLORENCE SUNG program director thereafter. His work with Paul Flucke, Annual Incorporation Luncheon Chuck Davis and others in the early 2000s resurrected Sunday April 8th, 12:30pm at the University Golf Club what had become a moribund organization. Speaker: Herbert Rosengarten, Professor Emeritus of English It may seem odd to “reward one of our own” except “UBC at 102 – Tales from the Ivory Tower” that Bruce also has a stellar record as a researcher and $40 for members and guests writer focusing on the fur trade. His CV runs to almost Buy tickets now on-line at three tightly worded pages of awards, articles and books, www.vancouver-historical-society.ca including Lives Lived West of the Divide and Leaving Paradise: or by cash or cheque at the March lecture. Indigenous Hawaiians in the Pacific Northwest, 1787-1898, the latter co-authored by Jean Barman. With characteristic understatement, he suggests: New VHS Members “Not having had the physical or psychological stamina Burt Montgomery Gail McBride to be a policeman, fireman or sports hero, I chose his- Carol Jensen Craig McKee tory.” He describes the 20 years of research that started Michael Levy L.R. William Ross as a summer project in the 1980s as “nudging along that long-overlooked part of our shared history” from Alaska to California. Vancouver Historical Society Executive Board: I thought you might like to know, and to be there on 2017 - 2018 April 8th to applaud him for his work both for historical (ELECTED MAY 25, 2017) studies and the VHS. PRESIDENT Michael Kluckner VICE PRESIDENT Madeleine de Trenqualye n another matter entirely, we used to be more in- TREASURER Grace Bu Ovolved with the BC Historical Federation and with RECORDING SECRETARY Kellan Higgins annual events such as local school Heritage Fairs. It isn’t DIRECTOR (MEMBERSHIP) Mary Wallace Poole that we now wish to be aloof or totally Vancouver-focused, DIRECTOR Eve Lazarus but rather that current board members have no more vol- DIRECTOR Robert McDonald unteer time to spend. DIRECTOR Brenda Peterson I’m wondering whether one or more of you reading DIRECTOR Tom Carter this is involved with these activities and would be willing Appointed Positions to volunteer, represent the VHS and occasionally attend ARCHIVIST Alexandra Allen one of our monthly directors’ meetings. One upcoming INFO LINE Jeannie Hounslow event is the BC Historical Federation conference in Na- NEWSLETTER MAILING Mary Gavan kusp from May 24–27. If you are interested, please get in TOUR COORDINATOR Jo Pleshakov touch with me at the email address below or say hello at CONTACT an upcoming lecture. Vancouver Historical Society Info Line: 604-827-3622 Michael Kluckner Mailing Address: P.O. Box 3071 Vancouver, BC V6B 3X6 [email protected] Website: www.vancouver-historical-society.ca Newsletter Editor: Eve Lazarus | [email protected] Newsletter Design and Production: Kellan Higgins Upcoming Speakers The VHS invites everyone to attend our monthly talks. Admission for non-members is by donation. Talks are held at the Mu- seum of Vancouver, 1100 Chestnut Street (in Vanier Park) at 7:30 p.m. on the fourth Thursday of every month except June, July, August and December. Thursday April 26, 2018 Growing City: The Evolution of Vancouver Gardens Speaker: Christine Allen, Master Vance examines a spent bullet through a comparison microscope ca.1932. COURTESY VANCE FAMILY Gardener CONTINUED FROM FRONT PAGE program, she herself joined the staff of the Is there a typical Vancouver garden? art, ethnic studies, fiction and true crime. Sun as a business reporter and continued Was there one at any time in the past? It’s been a dozen years or more since any- until the demands of her growing family Author Christine Allen looks back one attempted a comprehensive history of forced her to become a freelancer. through the photographic record to the city or the region, let alone a political Her first book experience, abetted analyze the gardening preferences of history, reflecting the reality of book pub- by her children aged two, five and eight, the city’s residents, explaining fash- lishing and sales in the Internet age. Many was a publication called Frommer’s with Kids ions in landscaping and trends such of the working writer-historians in the city Vancouver. But it was a trip back to Austra- as English Cottage and Asian. The maintain blogs as a way of connecting lia and a visit to the gold-rush city of Bal- talk mentions avid gardeners includ- with an audience and building apprecia- larat, where her grandparents had lived, ing “sugar king” B.T. Rogers and in- tion for the city’s past. that got her interested in the storytelling fluential landscapers such as Raoul Eve’s Every Place Has A Story blog is possibilities of old homes. On returning to Robillard. one of the better ones. She looks for local Vancouver, she was inspired by Strathco- curiosities, anniversaries and seemingly na house-historian James Johnstone. She Thursday, May 24, 2018 minor events, then builds a portrait of has been “hooked on history” ever since, Emily Patterson: The Heroic Life of time and place from them. For example, writing At Home With History, Sensational a Milltown Nurse her recent post on the 60th anniversary of Victoria, Sensational Vancouver, then Cold Case Lisa Anne Smith, Docent and Curator the “$1.49 Day, Woodward’s” jingle con- Vancouver and her new book on Vance en- nects readers to a time of locally owned titled Blood, Sweat, and Fear. Born in the staunchly pious township department stores and an earlier era of Her books “talk about the people of Bath, Maine, Emily Patterson ar- downtown shopping. Regular readers get rather than the murder” as she tries to fig- rived in the Pacific Northwest with drawn in, and some will look further to ure out what put them at the wrong place her husband and children in 1862. develop a broad knowledge of the city’s at the wrong time. “It’s the mystery and The family travelled through Or- history. puzzle of it,” she says. As an author, she is egon and the on to Burrard Inlet and Eve moved from her native Mel- happy for readers to enjoy the story “and the sawmilling communities of Hast- bourne to Vancouver in the 1980s and if you learn history or pick up some sci- ings Mill and later Moodyville. Emi- worked for three years at the Vancouver ence along the way—then that’s a bonus.” ly was often the only person available Stock Exchange, where she witnessed On the popular-to-academic history spec- in the area to provide the services of Sun investigative reporter David Baines’s trum, she’s happy to be at the “popular” midwife, nurse, and doctor, and she exposés of fraudsters and scams. Getting end. Her lectures, like her books, always looked after both Indigenous and qualifications from Langara’s journalism draw a crowd. pioneer residents of the area. Charles Marega: Vancouver’s Preeminent Sculptor (1871-1939) By Eve Lazarus harles Marega, one of Vancouver’s Cmost prolific sculptors, died 79 years ago this month. And, if you don’t recognize his name, you will know his work.
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