Category: From the Archives

Behind-the-scenes insights into the inner workings of a community museum and archives.

Retrospective and a New PerspectiveRetrospective and a New Perspective

April 8, 2025 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 0 Comments

In the fall of 2011, Greg Eymundson was kind enough to donate the prolific archive of Whistler-related photography from his company, Insight Visual Solutions, to the Whistler Museum & Archives Society (WMAS). Through the Young Canada Works program, I was recently given the opportunity to arrange and describe the materials in greater depth as part of a five month internship.

I had recently returned to Whistler after graduating with my Bachelor of Fine Arts from Emily Carr University of Art and Design, but found myself adrift and directionless after moving home. I was in desperate need of community and a sense of purpose. I found this and more during my time working at WMAS.

Families at the Meadow Park splash pad, ca. 2004. Insight Visual Solutions, Joern Rohde.

The material donated by Insight Visual Solutions primarily consists of over 25,000 35mm photo slides created from 1996 through 2006. Content of the photo slides ranges from thrilling sports photography, to documentation of nostalgic events and locations, to stunning aerial and landscape shots capturing the natural beauty of the valley. As the Assistant Archivist, I was tasked with preserving the original order imposed by Eymundson, while also making the collection intuitive for future researches to navigate. This involved an extensive process of assigning codes, physically labelling materials, and recording transcriptions and descriptions in a digital database.

The Insight collection has now been comprehensively arranged and described, preserving the record of a time in Whistler history that was previously under-represented in our archive, and one that shall remain forever golden in my memories of an idyllic childhood in the mountains. As someone born and raised in Whistler, I’m embarrassed to admit how easy it was for me to take the life I’ve had to this point for granted.

The Burrows’ A-frame cabin in Alpine Meadows. Burrow Collection.

When this lifestyle is all you’ve ever known, you don’t understand how exceptional it truly is; for example: “What do you mean other kids don’t go to ski school on Mondays?” It was only upon leaving the bubble that I could truly appreciate the gift I had been given by my parents, and by notable Whistler citizens Jane and Paul Burrows.

When the Burrows listed their classic A-frame in Alpine Meadows for sale over twenty years ago, they met a young couple expecting their first child. The Burrows told my family they wanted this baby to be brought up in their home and, rather than accepting a higher offer upfront, Jane and Paul waited for my parents to scrape together a down payment. If it weren’t for their selflessness, my family would likely have had no choice but to move elsewhere to raise me. It seems only fitting that I now find myself devoted to the preservation of local history that Jane and Paul Burrows influenced so heavily, considering I would not be here without them.

School photographs from Jane Burrows and posters of Paul, including his performances at Mt. Whistler Lodge and his election campaign featuring his distinctive silhouette.

Since completing the Insight Fonds, I have been cataloguing recent accruals from the estate of Jane and Paul Burrows. These include family scrapbooks, Myrtle Philip School photographs from Jane’s time as a teacher, and promotional posters from Paul’s election campaign.

My time at the Whistler Museum has given me a previously unprecedented level of gratitude for my home, my family, and those who have come before me.

Indigo Dipple was the Assistant Archivist at the Whistler Museum this winter through the Young Canada Works in Heritage Organizations (YCWHO) program.

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Worth a Thousand WordsWorth a Thousand Words

November 26, 2024 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 0 Comments

Photography has long served as a powerful tool for documenting and preserving human history. From its invention in the early 19th century, photography revolutionized how people recorded the world, capturing moments in remarkable detail and making them accessible to future generations. The ability to visually document everyday life, historical events, and personal milestones has transformed our understanding of the past.

Some of the earliest photographs of the Whistler area in our collections date back to 1911 when Myrtle and Alex Philip made their three-day journey from Vancouver to Alta Lake via the rugged Pemberton Trail. The Philips played a pivotal role in shaping Whistler’s early tourism through their operation of Rainbow Lodge, the area’s first tourist attraction. The couple’s photographs provide invaluable snapshots of a formative era in Whistler’s history. Their photos helped document milestones such as the arrival of the railway, the first airplane landing on Alta Lake, the start of industries such as logging, and the evolution of community life in the area. These make up some of the Whistler’s most prized images.

Photo contact sheet from the Whistler Question, July 4, 1979. Contact sheets show the images on strips of negatives, which are digitized to archival standards.

With a collection of more than 300,000 physical photographs, the museum’s photographic holdings are its largest and one of its most valuable assets. This collection spans decades, chronicling everything from the first documented mountaineering trip in 1923 (rich with photos of now long-since-receded glaciers) and the development of skiing in 1965, to the design and construction of Whistler Village in 1979-80 and hosting the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. Through these photographs, museum staff, visitors, and researchers can explore Whistler’s rich heritage.

Prior to the advent of digital photography (widely adopted during the 2000s), images were captured using a light-sensitive chemical emulsion applied to glass or to a strip of plastic or paper, commonly referred to as film. The process began when light entered the camera (sometimes just a crude wooden box) through a lens and exposed the film, creating a latent or hidden image. This latent image was then revealed during development, where the film was treated with specific chemicals in a darkroom to make the image visible. Once developed, the film could be used to create prints by projecting the image onto photographic paper.

Film types, emulsions, and the chemicals used for developing evolved significantly over the 20th century. One of the most important advancements as the development of safety films, which replaced the highly flammable and unstable nitrate films that were widely used prior to the 1940s. (The dangers of nitrate film and its combustible properties were a major plot point in the 2009 Quentin Tarantino film Inglourious Basterds.)

Thanks to the support of the Whistler Blackcomb Foundation, the Whistler Museum now has two scanners and can scan twice as many images! Our assistant archivist is seen scanning slides from the Insight Photography Collection, a more recent addition to our archival collections.

Tragically, many films from the silent film era of the 1920s were lost forever due to fires caused by nitrate films. One such loss is The Crimson West (1933), Canada’s first talkie film (a film with audio). Based on one of Alex Philip’s novels, it is considered a lost film after the Capitol Theatre in Victoria burned down, destroying the last known copies. Fortunately, aside from a few nitrate film negatives stored safely and securely, most of the museum’s collection consists of prints and safety film.

Our photographic holdings include a variety of formats, ranging from black-and-white images made from 4″x6″ medium-format film to the more common 35mm colour negatives, a popular choice among both amateur and professional photographers. Many of our collections also feature slide film, which were frequently used by businesses and families for presentations or “slide shows.” We ensure the preservation of these photographs by adhering to archival best practices, including careful handling and storage in acid-free archival boxes and stable plastic sleeves.

Photography, as documentation, is a bridge between the past and present. In Whistler, it continues to play an essential role in preserving the stories that define this extraordinary place, and we are glad to share these images with you here and on the museum’s social media channels. If you have photos you’d like to contribute to our collection, we’d love to hear from you – feel free to reach out or visit us at the museum!

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Skiing with Al RaineSkiing with Al Raine

June 11, 2024 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 4 Comments

In 1971, the Alpine Program Director of the Canadian National Ski Team penned an instructional book for skiers, from beginners to experts. The book was titled Skiing with Al Raine and was written, as you might have guessed, by Al Raine. It was a continuation of the nationally syndicated newspaper column, “SKIING with Al Raine,” which he began writing in 1969 and, like the other instructional skiing books found in the Whistler Museum’s resource library, is a guide for those looking to improve their skiing long before the internet made such information so easily accessible.

Nancy and Al Raine on Blackcomb Mountain. Greg Griffith Collection

Similar to both Ski with Toni Sailer from 1964 and Greg Athans’ Ski Free from 1978, Skiing with Al Raine offers skiers information about choosing ski equipment, how to prepare the body for skiing, and different techniques for turns and maneuvers, while also encouraging more formal instruction with a ski instructor as well. In the introduction, Raine acknowledges that there have already been multiple books written about ski technique, but claims that most do not emphasize one of the most important parts of learning to ski: “developing your own style.” He also makes a point of knowing when to stop skiing, skipping a run when you are tired, and the importance of taking a hot chocolate or coffee break.

Written specifically for the Canadian skier, Skiing with Al Raine also includes brief descriptions of the different ski areas across the country. Of the Whistler ski area of 1971, it says “Whistler Mountain is certainly renowned for its Olympic bid, summer skiing potential, tremendous scenery, and the honeymoon of Pierre Elliot Trudeau” and that “each year skiing and skier atmosphere improves greatly.”

Jogging and running was encouraged as a way to stay in shape for skiing. Whistler Question Collection, 1980

Al Raine and his wife Nancy Greene (1968 Olympic medallist and Canada’s Female Athlete of the 20th Century) moved to the Whistler area in 1973. Raine then became the Ski Area Coordinator for British Columbia and when the Resort Municipality of the Whistler was formed in 1975 was appointed to the Whistler council, a position he held until 1982.

The Whistler Museum will be joined by Al Raine and Drew Meredith (Whistler Mayor 1986-1990, realtor, and supposed lottery winner of 1982) to discuss not skiing but the origins and early years of the Whistler Resort Association (WRA) tomorrow (Wednesday, June 12) for our next Speaker Series. The WRA, better known today as Tourism Whistler, began as an amendment to the Resort Municipality of Whistler Act in 1979, a time when a lot of change was happening in the Whistler area. We’re looking forward to learning more about its history and a time when Whistler’s future was, to many, anything but clear.

Al Raine discusses the planning of the Whistler Village. Whistler Question Collection, 1980

On Saturday, June 15 the Whistler Museum will be talking about skiing with Jim McConkey, who instructed countless people to ski through both the written word and as the director of the Whistler Mountain Ski School. This will be the second film screening of 16mm films from the Whistler Museum’s archival collections, which have recently been digitized on new equipment thanks to the Whistler Blackcomb Foundation. You can find out more about both events here.

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Looking for Answers in WhistlerLooking for Answers in Whistler

May 14, 2024 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 0 Comments

Fifteen years after the Whistler Answer released its first issue, the Answer returned as a monthly magazine in April 1992. The first run (April 1977 to 1982) had ended as those involved gained new priorities (such as mortgages and kids) or left town and, for some, the Answer became part of Whistler’s past. According to publisher Charlie Doyle, he “more or less forgot about it” until Answer editor Bob Colebrook (Bosco) returned to Whistler and talked him into a second run.

The first issue of the Answer featured a photo of three canoeing individuals “lost” on Alta Lake.

In some ways, the Answer of 1992 looked very different than that of earlier years (as Doyle put it, “We were dragged kicking and screaming into the computer age, so we got a computer and someone to teach us how to use it”) but it featured quite a few familiar names. The first issue brought back comics including The Peak Bros. and Localman while continuing to focus on stories about things that affected the people living in Whistler alongside fiction pieces, sports profiles, music reviews and more.

At first it appeared that the return of the Answer, or “The Second Coming” as it read on the cover, was going to be a relatively quiet affair. In the Whistler Question‘s “Notes From All Over” of March 26, 1992, readers were told to “watch for the return of The Answer next week on April Fool’s Day” and an official opening party was planned for April 13, but there doesn’t appear to have been a lot more publicity in the lead up to the publication. This quickly changed, however, following the release of the first issue.

The Whistler Answer issue that prompted talks of protest and quite a few headlines, April 1992.

Not long after the first issue went on sale, businesses that advertised or sold the Answer began receiving phone calls from a group calling themselves Mothers for Morality warning them about the content of the magazine. According to the spokesperson for the group, they were offended by instances of nudity and glorification of drug use found in the issue, specifically the image of a nude male skier used on the subscription form and the mention of marijuana use by a skier in a fictional story by Peter Vogler. Though it appeared that the telephone campaign met with little success (Hazel Ellsi, the owner of Armchair Books, reportedly told them that she would not be removing the magazine from the shelves and their advertisers continued to support the publication), there was also talk of a demonstration outside the opening party by the group.

Colebrook contacted a reporter he knew with The Province (a former Questionable) who thought it was an interesting story. On April 13, the same day as the opening party, The Province ran a headline that read “Angry Moms on Rag, Say New Mag” and reported that the group was “livid” and “planning a full-scale protest tonight.” Colebrook reportedly spent the day fielding calls from CBC, Maclean’s, Reuters and other news outlets, taking subscription orders from across the country, and hearing from some large advertising agencies. Thanks to the Mothers for Morality and a phone call made by Colebrook, the Answer received a ton of free advertising over the next few days as the story appeared in other newspapers throughout Canada.

Charlie Doyle, Robin Blechman and Tim Smith present the very first issue of the Whistler Answer along with a new sign on Charlie’s truck, spring 1977. Photo courtesy: Whistler Answer

As it turned out, there was no demonstration against the Answer made at the opening party, which, from the photos in the May issue, appeared to have been thoroughly enjoyed by those who attended. Though the spokesperson for Mothers for Morality claimed to represent 27 Whistler mothers, only two members of the group were ever identified. The Answer kept on publishing its second run through August 1992 and continued to include some nudity alongside interviews with politicians and local groups, news about World Cup races, profiles of Whistler athletes, artists and musicians, articles on local issues, and some more satirical features.

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