Series consists of Doug Cox’s collecting activity carried out in support of his writing. Points of origin are from various interior regions of British Columbia. Collections acquired are predominantly composed of photographic material, secondarily of textual material, with thematically compiled interviews and associated transcripts also included. Contents depict, describe, and comment upon a variety of scenes and settings, primarily concerning industry and infrastructure, family life, city scenes, and landscapes during the first half of the twentieth century. Many photocopies of images exist with annotations by original donor identifying human subjects, their relationships, and their locations.

The series contains 21 subseries.

George Allen Aerial Photography was a photo studio based in Vancouver, BC.
Subseries consists primarily of 25cm x 20 cm b&w photographs with George Allen Photos Ltd., 4609 Main Street, Vancouver BC.
Locales photographed include Okanagan, Thompson, Cariboo, Kootenay, and Boundary regions.

Subseries consists of collected materials with pertinence to the mining industry in the late 19th and early 20th century in the Kootenay, Boundary, and Similkameen regions of British Columbia.
Includes collected photographs, clippings, government publications, maps (mineral claims) and textual records.

Subseries documents the Nickel Plate and Mascot mines near Hedley, BC, and several short-lived mining boom towns in the Kootenays and Boundary country (Phoenix, Camp McKinney) as well as Blakeburn and Coalmont (also now abandoned) in the Similkameen.

Series consists of the accumulation of research materials compiled by Doug Cox in support of his author and historian function, and presumed compiled predominantly during the 1980s and 1990s. This series is defined by its collection and/or photocopying from existing published sources and/or other resources, for which the originals reside both within and without the Cox Collection.

Series is composed predominantly of original and photocopied tear sheets from various periodical publications (with emphasis on the annual reports of the Okanagan Historical Society, which have been digitized in full), monograph publications, photocopied photographs with identifying annotations, photocopies of correspondence, some original correspondence, and notes.

Biographical sketch:
Alexander Theodore “Sandy” Brent (1912-1990) was as lifelong resident of the South Okanagan. After the death of his mother in the influenza epidemic of 1918, he and his siblings (Frederick (Eddie), Mary, Alice, Margaret and Donald) were raised by his grandparents at the Shingle Creek Ranch. Brent married Harriet Morgan and together they raised two sons (Kenneth (b. 1942) and George (b. 1945). His sister Alice married Hal Tweddle; she and her family is photographically documented in the Richter and Tweddle families collection.

The Brents lived variously in Allen Grove, St. Andrews by the Lake, and Penticton. Sandy Brent worked in ranching, hard rock mining (Nickel Plate mine above Hedley), logging, and finally as a foreman and later superintendent for the Hatfield family’s Interior Contracting Company.

Scope and content:
Subseries consists of recorded interview and transcripts of recorded interviews. Not all audio recordings associated with transcripts are extant; likewise not all audio tapes have an associated recording. Content of interviews includes personal reminiscences, descriptions of photographs, and family histories. Subseries also includes a suite of interviews with his sisters, Margaret, Alice, and Margaret.

Series consists of records generated by the business activities Stanley M. Simpson, the corporation he founded (S.M.S. Ltd) and its various subsidiaries between 1906 and 1965, when S.M.S. Ltd. was purchased by Crown Zellerbach Canada Ltd.
Series documents the operations of several sawmills and wood manufacturing plants, forestry harvesting operations, and retail outlets owned by S.M.S. Ltd. operating throughout the Central Okanagan, predominantly during the mid twentieth century.
Series includes an extensive collection of artifacts, robust photographic record, and company records.
Series descriptions within this sous fonds continue at 2.1.2.

The subseries consists of commissioned commercial photography (portraits, candids, aerials) carried out primarily by three firms (Aero Surveys Ltd., ca. 1948 to 1958; Jennings Ltd. Photography, ca. 1971 to 1974; and Hans Giesen of British Columbia Ltd. ca.1973). None of these firms have a current detectable presence. Other commercial photographers include Jack Cash Photographic Studio, Pope's Studio, Paul Ponich, Kermode Studio, and Ribelin Photography. Of these, only Pope's Studio is clearly still extant. Other photographs originate from the mill(s) proper, and yet others have been collected from third parties' personal photo collections (acquired or copcopied) by Sharron J. Simpson. There are a total of approximately 2,350 images in the form of photographs, scans & photocopies on paper, slide transparencies, negatives, and contact prints documenting mill business (under various nomenclature and ownership) during the years ca. 1910 to 1994, in colour and black & white, with sizes ranging from oversize posters to 10x12cm prints.

Includes interior mill, exterior forestry management, maps, exterior mill, trucks.

Contains oversize aerials, presumed by Aero Surveys Ltd., commissioned by S.M. Simpson Ltd.

Earnings, remittances to WCB.

Typewritten report RE: new mandate transition from logging to forest stewardship.

Subseries contains documentation of the awarding of the Freedom of the City of Kelowna to S.M. Simpson in 1957
Includes declaration, speaking notes, and other documents. Related photographs available in S.M. Simpson Photographic Record subseries.

Subseries contains newspaper clippings, copies of newspaper clippings, and tear sheets from publications which provide press coverage of the activities of S.M. Simpson Ltd. and which were published during the operational tenure of the business.
Subjects covered include the opening of the plywood plant in 1957, labour union disputes and strikes, mill fires, land sales, news of the acquisition of S.M. Simpson Ltd. By Crown Zellerbach Canada Ltd., and various advertisements placed by the company.
Related retrospective press coverage written and published recently, particularly in reference to the Simpson Covenant can be found in the Simpson Covenant series of the Sharron J. Simpson sous fonds.

Subseries consists of compiled records, photographs, and memorabilia commemorating and documenting the development, launch, and reception of the S.M. Simpson Ltd. Plywood plant between the years 1957 and 1959.

Clippings.

Various collected accounts of S.M. Simpson Ltd., from the 1980s and 1990s.

Subseries consists of various artifacts in wood, metal, fabric, paper and other materials, generated in the normal pursuit of business by S.M. Simpson and/or deliberately created as souvenirs.

Subseries consists of photographs created or acquired by Crown Zellerbach Canada Ltd. This aggregation consists of photographs concerning the former S.M. Simpson Ltd. mills as well as other mills purchased by Crown Zellerbach Canada at the same time.
The majority of these images are contact prints of aerial photographs from commercial photography studios, commissioned by Crown Zellerbach Canada:
Hans Giesen of British Columbia Ltd.
Jennings Ltd. Photography
Images depict sites, workers, events, processes, and capital projects at Crown Zellerbach mills, including those holdings in Enderby, Armstrong, Falkland, Monte Lake, Lumby, and Kelowna.

Subseries consists of partial documentation of the substantial forestry, logging, and sawmill operations conducted by Crown Zellerbach Canada (Southern Interior Wood Products) during the 1960s through 1980s. Predominantly, this subseries is comprised of prepared reports, prospectuses, industrial profiles, and descriptions of assets, work processes, and mill specifications.

Correspondence, minutes, policies.

IWA Correspondence, IWA Meeting Minutes.

Contains duo tang folder with map, itinerary.

Sous fonds consists of documentation of Sharron J. Simpson’s activities between the years of approximately 1994 to 2011. Sous fonds is predominantly concerned with Sharron J. Simpson’s leadership in the Simpson Covenant court case in 2007 and 2008, as well as the compilation of her personal family research and a few writing samples. In addition, an aggregation of photographs related to her activities is also included.

Series documents Sharron J. Simpson’s activism as the leader of a legal initiative challenging the proposed dissolution of the Simpson Covenant, a restrictive land sale agreement made between her grandfather, Stanley M. Simpson and the City of Kelowna in 1946.
To explain the context of the creation of the covenant: following a mill fire on S.M.S. Ltd. land on what is now Kelowna’s downtown waterfront (around the area known as Manhattan Point) S.M. Simpson sold this land to the City of Kelowna with the understanding that S.M. would sell at a reduced rate, and the City of Kelowna would agree that the land be used for civic or community (not commercial) purposes. In the 2000s, the City of Kelowna moved to dissolve the so-called “Simpson Covenant,” and in response Sharron J. Simpson launched a court challenge to enforce the maintenance of the covenant.
Series contains correspondence, legal documents (including petitions, reasons for judgment, affidavits, civic records and land title office records, City of Kelowna memoranda, press clippings and press releases, appraisal records, etc.).

Also includes Tom Smithwick (lawyer) affidavit, and letters of support from the community which are not part of the public record.

Includes copy of the original signed petition, subdivision plans, and press coverage.

Series consists of materials documenting Sharron J. Simpson’s efforts to collect external information about various aspects of her family history centering mainly on the history of S.M.S. Ltd., but not including research particular to the Simpson Covenant, which is kept separate.
In addition to the collection of published materials (predominantly newspapers) the series also includes recorded oral histories and select transcripts.

Various newspaper clippings and copied tear sheets, annotated by Sharron J. Simpson. Originals date from ca. 1918, but all materials presumed copied around 1999.

Miscellaneous collected documents from the Sharron J. Simpson sous fonds. Includes a map, funeral program, some copied clippings, handwritten notes of unknown context, OHS report #23 report on population of Okanagan cities, ILMA directory, KPMG Forest Industry Update, and 2 souvenir calendars.