Fairy Tale Postcards from University of British Columbia
One of the things we love to do when visiting any city is to flaneur the university and college campuses. Why? Because we are almost always reward with a fun experience. A recent visit to the University of British Columbia’s (UBC) campus was certainly no exception.
We found some amazing fun fairy tales books and illustrations.
Looking for hidden gems
While most people visiting UBC would immediately head to the world renowned Museum of Anthropology (MOA), we decided to explore the rest of campus first – Student Centre, Alumni Centre, Arts Building, Belkin Art Gallery etc. While we didn’t find any hidden treasures, we did get a private behind the stage tour from the Marketing Director at the Wood Theatre.
We did end up at MOA but it didn’t grab our imagination so we continued to wander the campus as it was a lovely spring afternoon for flaneuring UBC’s inviting pedestrian malls. Soon we noticed dozens of students enjoying the sun in the amphitheatre space in front of what looked like the oldest building on campus. We decided to head in that direction, thinking old buildings often have interesting things to see inside.
To our disappointment only the façade was old, the inside had been renovated and added to.
Had we struck out?
Then we noticed two interesting display case in the lobby with some fun historical fairy tale books, from around the world with great illustrations. Looking around we realized there were six other display cases with more historical fairy tale books. This is exactly what we were looking for – something fun, quirky and unique.
We continued to look around and found the dramatic John Nutting glass sculpture hanging from the ceiling in the staircase, but nothing else captured our attention so we headed for the exit. Fortunately, as we were heading out we notice a sign saying Rare Book and Special Collections Library down stairs.
We both immediately said “Let’s check it out” as we have been rewarded in rare book collection libraries before. Eureka…not only were nine more display cases with curated fairy tale books vignettes from the UBC’s collection, but there was also a well curated exhibition of The Chung Collection chronicling early B.C. history, immigration and settlement and its link to the Canadian Pacific Railway.
The Rare Book and Special Collections staff Chelsea Shriver and Hiller Goodspeed were amazingly helpful, sharing with us more information about the exhibitions, the library and the fact three graduate students at the UBC iSchool (Library, Archival and Information Studies) - Renee Gaudet, Karen Ng and Ashlynn Prasad - had curated the exhibition titled “Across Enchanted Lands: Universal Motifs in Illustrated Fairy Tales.” Kudos to them as they did a great job creating vignettes that were entertaining, engaging, educational and enlightening.
Here are some postcards from both exhibitions, I hope will give you a sense of the incredible scope of the exhibitions and detail of the illustrations. I apologize that some of the text and photos are cropped poorly but that was to avoid the glare from the lights and glass.
Each of the display cases had a text panel and then several books relating to the theme described in the panel. The displays also included hand painted red and gold colouring with origami like flowers and figures created by Dr. Kathie Shoemaker the exhibition supervisor.
The Chung Collection
When Wally Chung was just six years old he spent many hours in his father’s Victoria tailor shop. One thing in particular that fascinated him was a colourful poster of the Empress of Asia, the CP ship that brought his mother to Canada in 1919. It fired the boy’s imagination and inspired hime to start collecting.
Starting with clippings for his scrapbooks, Dr. Chung spent more than 60 years assembling on the most extensive collections of its kind in North America. The Chung Collection includes more than 25,000 rare items: documents, books, maps, posters, paintings, photographs, silver, glass, ceramic ware and other artifacts related to early B.C. history, immigration and settlement and the Canadian Pacific Railway Company.
(excerpt from the exhibition brochure)
Link: Video The Chung Collection (definitely worth watching)
Everyday Tourist Travel Tips
If you are in Vancouver and have time you should definitely check out the Rare Book Library’s exhibitions at UBC. The Chung Collection will probably still be there as it is a permanent exhibition, but the fairy tales book exhibition is only on until the end of May 2019. But I am sure it will be replaced by something equally as interesting.
If you are visiting a new city you should always plan to spend a day at their major university or college campus wandering the buildings, opening doors and seeing what you can find behind them.
And, if you haven’t visited the university or college campus in your city for a long time (or ever) you should think of doing so as they probably have some great things to see – rare books, public art, gallery/ museum exhibitions, architecture, gardens etc.
If you liked this blog, you will like these links:
UofC Hidden Gem: The Book Dissected
A-mazing University of New Mexico campus