The collection reflects the careers and interests of the Farris family, who were prominent members of the Vancouver elite. Their status as a family of lawyers and educated individuals often allowed them the opportunity to travel and attend noted events such as the Royal Ascot Racecourse, and encounter several distinguished individuals, such as Prime Ministers Louis St. Laurent and Pierre Trudeau, Lieutenant Governor Walter Owen, and Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. The collection consists chiefly of correspondence, photographs, matters of estate, family history, notebooks, manuscripts, legal memorabilia, and family memorabilia of John Wallace de Beque Farris, Evlyn Keirstad Farris, John Lauchlan Farris, and Dorothy Farris.

The Mavis Hall collection comprises of a variety of printed and photographic materials collected by Margery McCuaig, Hall’s mother, during a trip to Japan, sponsored by the Japanese Tourism Ministry and the Japanese Government Railways, from July-August, 1939.

The collection contains commercially-produced slides, postcards and souvenir photographs, as well as Board of Tourism publications, prints, and a few personal items and memorabilia of McCuaig, such as a passport, scrapbook, and autograph book. McCuaig also collected ephemera from the time she spent on the cruise ship, including daily ship menus, news bulletins, travel brochures, and entertainment programmes, that exhibit her experiences onboard.

Biographical sketch
Joseph Gleason Harris (b. 1910-07-06, d.1994-12-26) arrived in Penticton in 1917. At age 16 he was invited by Frank Richter, Jr., to the Richter Ranch in Keremeos, from which point he visited the Cathedral Mountains for the first time. Later, in 1939, Joe Harris and Herb Clark of Keremeos launched a pack horse business which would take tourists to visit the Cathedrals. In 1944 he entered the ranching industry and in 1946 took over what was previously Ralph Overton’s ranch. This site was later home to Apex Mountain Guest Ranch. 1946 also saw the launch of a heavy equipment business.
Joe Harris and Margaret “Peggy” Burgess married April 4, 1945 and they made their home in Penticton. Together they raised seven children.
Joe Harris also was heavily involved in civic service. Harris served as the chairman of the Central Welfare Committee for fifteen years throughout the 1930s and 1940s. From 1950-1957, Harris also served as an Alderman on the Penticton City Council. Harris was a member of the Penticton Hospital Board for sixteen years and initiated a local volunteer search and rescue group. Harris participated in many local rescues himself.
Harris was also instrumental in local heritage initiatives and worked as the curator of the R.N. Atkinson (Penticton) Museum from 1973-1984. His deep knowledge of the history of the area poised him to deliver educational lectures to various organizations and to serve as president of the Penticton branch of the Okanagan Historical Society for five years.
Harris was an avid photographer, and won many awards. His photographic record documents local places and events throughout the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s.
Harris was a close associate and valuable historical source for Doug Cox during his writing career.

Scope and content
Subseries consists of original photographs taken by Joe Harris as well as some pieces collected by Joe Harris and then subsequently transferred to the custody of Doug Cox. Predominant photographic coverage relates to the Cathedral Mountains, south of Keremeos, BC, during the 1930s. Includes a sequence of interviews with Joe Harris, and some associated transcripts.

The fonds consists of diaries, scrapbooks, and correspondence spanning the period 1910-2003 and related to the professional and personal lives of three generations of the Bamford family—William Blackley Bamford, his son William Blackley Stanley Bamford, and his grandson William Huestis Bamford—as well as to members of the Lasell and Ord families, related by marriage to William Huestis Bamford. Diaries in the fonds include concise “five year” or “line a day” diaries, as well as more detailed daily journals and many cover aspects of the Bamfords’ professional and personal life.

Scrapbooks in the fonds, which contain newspaper clippings, ephemera, correspondence, photographs, notes, and other material, primarily reflect the Bamfords’ personal interests, but also interests their chosen professions and employers, including the Canadian Pacific Railway Company and the Bank of Montreal. Beyond the incoming and outgoing personal and professional correspondence included in the scrapbooks, the Esther Adelina Lasell Bamford series contains incoming correspondence related to a branch of the Ord family living in New Zealand.

The fonds is arranged into four series by family member: William Blackley Bamford; William Blackley Stanley Bamford; William Huestis Bamford; and Esther Adelina Lasell Bamford.

The fonds consists of records related to Simons’ writing career, travels, and personal life. Records span a period from Simons’ early years in university to 2012 and were created predominantly in Vancouver, British Columbia. Some records were created during Simons’ travels in England, France, Japan, Hong Kong, India, and Burma. The fonds comprises the following three series: Literary Works; Professional and Personal Records; and Travel Records.

The Literary Works series features drafts of Simons’ literary works in various genres, particularly drama (stage, radio, and film) and fiction (for children and adults). Record types include publications, drafts (typed, handwritten, and hand-annotated), outlines, notes, research materials for projects, several recordings of Simons’ works, and large poster boards Simons used for plotting one of her fiction projects.

The Professional and Personal Records series contains records related to the administration and management of Simons’ literary career, particularly her attempts to submit work to various publishers and producers, mount productions of her dramatic works, and secure adequate financial resources to sustain her writerly practice. Administrative records are frequently mixed physically with Simons’ personal correspondence to family and friends. Record types include drafts of Simons’ curriculum vitae, grant applications, professional and personal correspondence, professional photographs, and contracts.

The Travel Records series aggregates records from Simons’ three major trips: Europe from 1959-1961; Japan, Hong Kong, and India from 1967-1968; and Hong Kong, Burma, India, and Japan in 1986. Simons attended many plays, conferences, and art shows while traveling and preserved programs as a source of inspiration for her creative work. Simons also maintained correspondence with friends and family during her travels. Record types include programs, personal and professional correspondence, personal photographs, and Simons’ notes on various activities.

Fonds captures the life of Jack Pearcey in British Columbia in the 1920s when he was an engineering student at the University of British Columbia (class of 1927) and when he traveled the province as part of his work for the Geological Survey of Canada. Photographs depict Pearcey and his colleagues doing survey work in rural areas and feature such locations as Nakusp, Prosperity, Green Point, Wreck Bay, Victoria, Marmor Glacier, and Blair Glacier. Pearcey’s Geological Survey of Canada work in the Slocan region features Slocan, Slocan Lake, Kaslo, Kootenay Lake, Sandon, New Denver, and Carpenter Creek Valley. Photographs also depict Britannia Mine and miners, bunk houses, work camps, regional flora, UBC (including construction of the science building), camping/hiking, and more.

Collection consists of documents and maps that supported the findings in McDowell's book, Uncharted Waters: The Explorations of Jose Narvaez (1768-1840), published in 2015 by Ronsdale Press, Vancouver, BC.

All items in this collection are photocopies. The dates of the originals fall between 1788 and 1830. When available, information about the locations of the originals is specified in the file-level description.

From McDowell: "One of the least appreciated, but potentially most important set of historical documents in [RBSC] are those related to the overlooked Spanish navigator Jose Maria Narvaez (1768-1840), the first European mariner to explore the central and northern parts of what we now call the Salish Sea in 1791 -- one year before the famous captains Dionisio Alcala-Galiano, Cayetano Valdes y Bazan, and George Vancouver investigated the same inland sea. Although Narvaez's remarkable achievements and contributions were largely ignored, overlooked, or minimized until 1998, a more accurate assessment is emerging, and it has been supported significantly by the documentary information in [RBSC]."

The fonds consists of correspondence, journals, legal documents, financial documents, printed drawings, watercolours, an order book, and personal and other documents created and/or accumulated by Edward Belcher and other members of the Belcher family. The majority of the Edward Belcher material is related to his naval career.

The fonds consists of a bound, handwritten transcribed copy of Robert Haswell's log of the Columbia, which chronicles two trips of her sister ship, the sloop Washington, to the vicinity of the Strait of Juan de Fuca in 1789. The fonds also includes a photostatic copy of Captain Robert Gray's log for the Columbia in 1791. It records voyages along the northwest coast of Washington State and British Columbia.

The fonds consists of postcards acquired in her travels, mainly in Europe and including Vienna, Paris, and various locations in Italy as well as Canada, United States, New Zealand, Japan, and Barbados. There is also a small amount of correspondence.

The fonds consists of correspondence with the Colonial Secretary's Office (1865-1867), a newspaper clipping and undated biographical notes.

The fonds consists of an unpublished original manuscript (including 80 photographs) of a train trip from New York to Los Angeles, Vancouver, Winnipeg and then back to New York via St. Paul, Minnesota (1907). Also included is an unpublished typewritten manuscript on three weeks in Glacier Park, Montana (1919).

The fonds consists of Work's handwritten diary of a trip from Fort Simpson to the Queen Charlotte Islands (May 13-26, 1851) to investigate the reported gold discoveries there.

This fonds consists of documents, archival records, photographs, ephemera, and artifacts pertaining to the life and work of Hanne Wassermann Walker. These materials relate to several broad themes: health and fitness, travel, friends and family, immigration to North America, and art/photography. Hanne's collection provides a window into the early 20th century physical culture movement; the experience of Jewish Europeans in the lead-up to, during, and after World War II; and the landscapes of British Columbia between the 1940s and 1970s. The fonds is comprised of manuscripts and published materials, correspondence, government records, photographs (including negatives, metadata, and albums), and more. In addition to Hanne's extensive collection of letters, postcards, personal and official records, and assorted odds and ends (e.g. household receipts, business cards, recipes, etc.), the fonds also contains the records of her husband, George Dickson Walker.

The collection consists of archival records, printed materials, photographs, maps, posters, artefacts and paintings all related to the Klondike Gold Rush. Records span the activities of individuals, organizations, companies, and government bodies related to the Klondike Gold Rush, the Yukon, Alaska, and the Northwest Territories from ca. 1860 to 2003. The collection documents the journeys of, and commerce created by individuals and groups of people from around the world who left their homes to join the Gold Rush; it also contains materials documenting the presence of Indigenous peoples throughout the Yukon.

The collection reflects the development of regional infrastructure and transportation in the Yukon and Alaska, including the creation of the White Pass and Yukon Route railway line. Many materials in the fonds originated from the construction and development of specific town sites and communities located in the Yukon, including Dawson City, Carcross, Forty Mile, and White Horse.

Other materials document the creative works of individuals seeking to record and share stories about the Klondike in various forms, including photographs, journals, poetry, music and theatre.

The collection is comprised of the following series: Textual Records, Photographic Materials, Cartographic Materials, Graphic Materials, and Objects. Each series is majorly comprised of the record type described in the title, and materials within each series are described at the item level.