Evlyn Fenwick Farris (nee Keirstead) was born in Windsor, Nova Scotia on August 21, 1878. She attended school in Nova Scotia and then attended Horton Academy, graduating high school at the age of sixteen. In 1898, she graduated from Acadia University with First Class Honours and in 1899, she was granted an MA Degree in Philosophy and German. She moved to Middletown Connecticut, where she taught high school history from 1899-1905.

After a seven-year engagement, she married John Wallace de Beque Farris in 1905 and moved to Vancouver. She and her husband had four children, Katherine Hay, Donald Fenwick, Ralph Keirstad, and John Lauchlan. She started the first University Women’s Club of Vancouver in 1907, where she was president for a three year term. In 1912, Farris was elected to the Senate of the University of British Columbia, and was on the Board of Governors from 1917-1942. She worked with members of the University Faculty to establish University Extension Lectures to bring education to adult populations across the province. In 1923, Acadia University acknowledged her contribution to higher education in British Columbia and presented her with an honorary doctorate. She also received another honorary doctorate from UBC in 1942. She died on November 5, 1971.

Walter Owen was born in Atlin. He was educated in Vancouver and he articled from 1922-1927. He was called and admitted in B.C. in January 1928. In 1923 he joined with Ralph Campney to form the firm that would later become Campney, Owen and Murphy. He served as County Court prosecutor from 1933 until he entered military service in 1942. He was appointed Q.C. in 1945. He was very active in the Canadian Bar Association, serving as Vice-President for B.C. in 1952-1954 and as National President in 1958-1959. He was a Bencher of the Law Society of B.C. from 1955 to 1967, and served as Treasurer in 1964-1966. He was active in numerous other professional capacities. In 1969 he left Campney, Owen and Murphy with the establishment of Owen, Bird and McDonald (later Owen, Bird). He was appointed Lieutenant Governor of B.C. in 1973, a position he held until his retirement in 1978.

According to the online Canadian Encyclopedia, the Canadian Advisory Council on the Status of Women (CACSW) was established in 1973 by the federal government on the recommendation of the Royal Commission on the Status of Women. It was dismantled on April 1, 1995.

CACSW advised the federal government and informed and educated the public about concerns pertinent to women. As an autonomous agency, CACSW reported to Parliament through the minister responsible for the status of women and retained the right to publish its views without ministerial consent. CACSW included three full-time members (a president and two vice presidents), fifteen regionally representative part-time members appointed for three-year terms, and an office staff of approximately thirty employees. It was a leading publisher of research on women, and its recommendations prompted legislative change concerning constitutional reform, pensions, parental benefits, taxation, health care, employment practices, sexual assault, violence against women, and human rights.

Beverley Simons, née Rosen, was born on March 31, 1938 in Flin Flon, Manitoba. When Simons was 12, her family moved to Vancouver for a year and then to Edmonton. She studied piano starting as a child and at age 16 she was offered scholarships to the Juilliard School, Conservatoire de Paris, and the Toronto Conservatory of Music. However, she chose not to continue studying music, influenced by her high school theatre experiences with teacher Walter Kaasa (actor, teacher, and later assistant deputy minister of culture, Alberta). In 1954, also at the age of 16, Simons won a national writing contest for high school students for her verse drama, Twisted Roots. In 1956, Simons began studying English literature at McGill University, and was one of the founders of the McGill University Players Club.

In 1958, she accepted a summer creative writing scholarship to the Banff School of Fine Arts, where she produced her first full-length play, My Torah, My Tree. On August 24, 1958, Simons married Sidney Simons, who became a criminal defence lawyer. After getting married, Simons transferred to the University of British Columbia. She graduated in 1959 with a BA, majoring in English and theatre. Simons also acted, starring in The Lark, by Jean Anouilh, produced by Vancouver Little Theatre.

In 1959, after her graduation, Simons and her husband spent two years travelling through Europe. While travelling, Simons began work on a new play, The Elephant and the Jewish Question. Simons completed this play on her return to Vancouver in 1961 (premiered by Vancouver Little Theatre) and began writing another, a one-act play, Green Lawn Rest Home (later premiered by Savage God/SFU). From 1961-1965, Simons’ three children were born, and she wrote three film scripts commissioned by CBC-TV: Encounter, If I Turn around Quick (published in The Capilano Review, vol. 8 & 9, fall 1975/spring 1976), and The Canary. Later, the National Film Board also commissioned Simons to write a feature-length screenplay, A Question of Symmetry. She wrote a sequel feature screenplay, Ezekiel Saw A Wheel, on spec.

In 1967, the Canada Council awarded Simons a ‘B’ grant, to support her in writing a new play. Simons used the grant to fund a trip to Japan, Hong Kong, and India, where she investigated diverse theatre conventions. She then wrote Crabdance, the play for which she is best known. In 1969, Crabdance was produced by A Contemporary Theatre (ACT) in Seattle, Washington. In January 1972, Crabdance was produced by the Vancouver Playhouse Theatre Company in Vancouver, BC. During August 1972, the play received a semi-professional production at Neptune Theatre’s second stage in Halifax, NS. In 1975, Crabdance was produced by the Manitoba Theatre Centre, and in 1976 by the Citadel Theatre in Edmonton, AB, with a video of the production made by ACCESS Alberta. An adaptation of the play was produced and broadcast nationally on CBC-Radio in 1976.
In this period, Simons also completed four one-act plays, Preparing (premiered by Tamahnous Theatre, Vancouver), Prologue, Triangle, and The Crusader (all three produced by One Yellow Rabbit Performance Theatre, Calgary). Talonbooks published two volumes of Simons’ dramatic works: Crabdance, and the collected one-act plays (including Green Lawn Rest Home), titled Preparing. In 1976, Simons published a new full-length play, Leela Means to Play, in the Canadian Theatre Review volume 9, an issue dedicated to her work. This play was chosen for workshop production in 1978 at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Centre in Waterford, Connecticut, but it has not been fully staged.

In the following years, Simons began work on a trilogy of novels, with the series entitled Da Vinci’s Light. A short excerpt was published in 1985 in the volume Vancouver Fiction, Polestar Press. Some of Simons’ short fiction pieces were published in Vancouver-based magazines, including PRISM International and “the best of blewointment”. Simons contributed an essay on world drama to a series program for the World Festival, EXPO 86 Vancouver. In addition, Simons wrote manuscripts of several children’s books.

In 1991, the Canada Council for the Arts awarded her an ‘A’ grant to support her creating a new full-length play, Now You See It. When finished, this piece was workshopped by Necessary Angel Theatre Company, Toronto, but has not been fully staged. Simons worked on various projects throughout the 1990s and 2000s, focusing most often on Da Vinci’s Light, large portions of which are mostly complete. One radio play, Hunting the Lion, was produced by CBC-Radio, and Crabdance was produced again in 1994 (translated into French) at Sigma, an arts festival in Bordeaux, France.

Simons gave lectures throughout her writing career, especially from 1973-1994. Simons spoke mostly at universities, including Simon Fraser University (1973, 1983), University of British Columbia (1987), York University (1994), and University of Bordeaux (1994). In 1984, she was artist in residence at the University of Lethbridge. She also gave readings at these institutions and at other public literary reading series in Vancouver, Brackendale, and Nelson, BC, and at Harbourfront, Toronto (sharing the stage there with Robert Lepage). Finally, Simons served as jury member for several Canada Council grants during 1990-1991.

Situated on the River Skeena, Inverness Cannery was built in 1876 by North Western Commercial Company. It was purchased from Turner, Berton Company by J. H. Todd and Sons of Victoria in 1902 who owned and managed the cannery until it's closure in 1950. The cannery was destroyed by fire and rebuilt in 1920, and entirely destroyed by fire in 1973.

James Robert Stanton was born in Snohomish, Washington in 1885. His father was killed in an accident during construction of the Great Northern Railway in Washington and his mother died at birth. He was raised by a station agent and his wife. He began schooling in Wenatchee and later attended high school in Seattle where he met his wife, Laurette. In Seattle, he worked various jobs on boats and later owned a garage. In 1919 they moved to Knight Inlet, British Columbia where they lived and ran a guiding business until Laurette’s death. Following, he lived in Vancouver, Indiana, Campbell River and Comox. In Vancouver he wrote a manuscript titled “Kitlamtass” about his life growing up in Washington and with Laurette in Knight Inlet from 1919-1966. He died in 1978. Two landmarks have been named for him: Stanton Creek and Mt. Stanton in the Franklin River area on Vancouver Island.

Dr. Earl T. Engle was a professor at the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University for 29 years and lived in Sanbornton, New Hampshire. His 35-year-long scientific career provided significant contributions to the field of endocrinology. His collaborative work with Dr. Philip E. Smith helped to elucidate the role of the anterior pituitary, especially in the regulation of gonadal function. The hormonal control of menstruation was another of his many scientific interests.

Kustaa Ketola was born October 30, 1904, in Poytya, Jalkala, Finland. He was drafted into the Porin Regiment of the army in 1924 for a minimum required service time of one year. He trained as a combat first aid medic but did not serve in battle and was honorably discharged in September 1925. Ketola also lived in Vancouver, Canada, and worked as a miner. He was also authorized by the Finnish consulate to enter the USA for six months in 1938. The material in his fonds indicates involvement with unions, specifically the International Woodworkers of America.