Written by: Jared Majeski, Historic Resources Management Branch
Summer isn’t over just yet, which means its still appropriate to reminisce about the events and people taking part in what’s now a regular, annual tradition: the summer music festival.
Original poster for the 1972 Edmonton International Pop Festival, by Phoenix & Arabeth. Apparently, glossy colour posters were plastered around the city only a couple weeks before the event. They were replaced almost as fast as they were stolen.
In what may have been one of Edmonton’s first outdoor weekend music events, the Edmonton International Pop Festival took place August 26 and 27, 1972. Held at the old Edmonton International Speedway in northwest Edmonton, the hastily-organized and promoted festival cost $15 to attend, which, if you’ve ever attended a Folk Fest or Interstellar Rodeo festival, is microscopically cheap in comparison.
Written by: Fraser Shaw, Heritage Conservation Advisor
If you’ve ever driven down the beautiful Cowboy Trail, chances are you’ve driven by at least a few historic ranches. Some of these ranches, like Bar U and E.P., have been operating for over a hundred years.
Another of those ranches is the Circle L Ranch, started by a storekeeper from Salt Lake City in the late 1800s. The site recently underwent a restoration project to help ensure historic small-scale ranching in remained intact and accessible. The ranch is a Provincial Historic Resource and an excellent example of an early family-run ranch in southern Alberta.
Written by: Sara King, Government Records Archivist, Provincial Archives of Alberta
Its film time again courtesy of the Provincial Archives of Alberta! Archival records, whether paper, photographic, film or audio, can very often provide more information about their subject than was originally intended.
Take It Happened at Vic. This silent drama production about a love triangle, created by Victoria Composite High School students in Edmonton in 1941, reveals how the school and neighbourhood looked at the time, hair and fashions typical of high school students, technology they were using such as cameras and cars, and the types of social activities that students might have been getting up to at the time (Or at the least the ones they would put on film). If the name Joe Shoctor jumps out at you from the opening credits, he went on to found the Citadel Theatre in Edmonton.
Written by: Michael Gourlie, Government Records Archivist
When researchers first arrive at an archives, they often bring many stereotypes with them. They may assume that the records are all about “early pioneer days,” the photographs are all black and white images of stern Victorian settlers, and the storage vaults look like something out of Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Ahem.
While they don’t look like something out of an Indiana Jones film, there are certainly many mysteries to uncover in the vaults of the Provincial Archives of Alberta. Source: Provincial Archives of Alberta.
While some elements of these impressions may be true, the Provincial Archives of Alberta (PAA) is anything but your stereotypical archives. Its holdings include records from the 1640s to the 2010s in all media, including paper, photographs, motion picture film, tape recordings, and digital media. Although the records of the Government of Alberta comprise the bulk of its holdings, the PAA has acquired the records of individuals, families, businesses, and community groups that provide evidence of the political, cultural and economic evolution of the province. A variety of researchers use these records, from genealogists to academic historians to even members of the public service seeking to understand past government programs.
One of the records that debunks the staid stereotypes of archives is a film titled “1967 in Selling Colour”. The Swift Canadian Company created the film to kick off a marketing campaign designed to coincide with both the Canadian centennial celebrations and the growing availability of colour television in Canada. Starting in black and white before shifting to glorious colour, the film is most definitely a time capsule of the way Canadian society viewed food, fashion, advertising, and the roles of men and women. The PAA received the film as a donation when Maple Leaf Foods, the successor firm of Swift Canadian, found the records prior to the demolition of its meat packing facilities in Edmonton.
To make these holdings more accessible, the PAA has digitized and placed them on various social media platforms. See for yourself whether or not Swift is the Meat!
RETROactive 