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It’s September, and that means back to school, so our featured photograph this month is one of several Strathcona Elementary School portraits from the Chung Collection:

Strathcona is Vancouver’s oldest elementary school, founded in 1891. In the early 20th century the Strathcona area was a working-class district, and the home of a diverse array of immigrant families. Strathcona Elementary was so diverse that it earned the nickname, “The League of Nations.” This photograph we believe to have been taken sometime in the 1920’s.

This photograph was taken by Yucho Chow studios, and is one of 20  photographs in the Chung Collection known to be taken by Yucho Chow, most of which are in fact Strathcona school portraits.  According to Camera Workers of British Columbia, Yucho Chow was the first Chinese photographer in Vancouver. At the Museum of Vancouver website, you can see his photographic case.

Historic Joy Kogawa House, the house that was the childhood home of author Joy Kogawa before the internment of Japanese Canadians during World War II, has announced a new writer-in-residence. Susan Crean will live and work in Joy Kogawa House from September 15 to December 15, while working on a new piece of historical non-fiction about headtax payer Wong Dong Wong. You can read about her connection to Wong Dong Wong on her website, What is Toronto. While she is in residence at Joy Kogawa House, there will be public opportunities to engage with her and her work through a reading series and other events. Keep an eye on the Historic Joy Kogawa House website!

The Chung Collection Exhibition will be closed to the public on August 22, 26 and 29. We apologize for the inconvenience.

The good news is that the closure is for the completion of a special project- stay tuned in the coming months!

There is something fascinating about photographs of wrecked or stranded ships (especially when you know that no one was hurt or injured). This month’s featured photograph was taken almost exactly 101 years ago, when the C.P.R.’s Princess May was stranded off of Alaska on August 5, 1910.

The Princess May was one of the coastwise ships that the C.P.R. used in the British Columbia Steamship Service. The Princess ships carried passengers and cargo along the “triangle route” of Vancouver, Victoria and Seattle, and also offered transportation up the coast to Alaska.  It was on this route that the Princess May came into the predicament you see above. She ran aground on Sentinel Island after departing from Skagway. All the passengers and crew were safely evacuated in lifeboats, and a shipment of gold which was onboard was also removed for safekeeping. Naturally, the dramatic angle of the boat made for a great photo opportunity, and a number of views of this incident are available in the Chung Collection. The Princess May was successfully salvaged and later sold.

If this interests you, try searching the Chung Collection for ship accidents and shipwrecks.