Editorially speaking…
Well, here we are, at the end of another year in a world of strife and environmental crises. Sometimes, I must admit, I do begin to doubt my lifelong obsession with the past when our global present almost seems to preclude a long-term future. It feels sort of like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic...
Sorry! A note of doom and gloom is a heckuva way to begin a new year. So let’s get down to the work at hand, history…
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—Courtesy Vancouver City Archives
Searching for archival photos online is fun and often rewarding, but time-consuming. Another frustration is that many photos are poorly or incorrectly captioned. This one of a Vancouver City mounted police constable in Stanley Park caught my eye, but the attached description was brief to nil.
However, it didn’t take Facebook readers long to fill in the story.
One kindly sent along this newspaper clipping which tells the story of this outstanding and, it turns out, internationally award-winning photo:
Charles Sedgewick Cairns was inspired to write: "Picked this up in the thrift shop. It is a framed glossy photo of a Vancouver mounted cop being attacked by a goose protecting her goslings. It won a Canadian Press photojournalism award and was Life magazine's photo of the week in 1954, officially titled. The Gallant Gander.
After I acquired it I was contacted by someone who knew both the constable and the horse. The horse, I recall, was "Topper". [From a] previous commentary I was able to locate"The Gallant Gander," photographer Ray Munro [whch was] featured in Time Magazine.
Kristin Hardie, Curator of the Vancouver Police Museum, inform[ed] me that the photo won the National Newspaper Award and also was awarded the recognition of best photograph by the Canadian Press [and] Life magazine's “Picture of the Week".
It appeared in the Vancouver Sun 1954.The 13×10 framed "glossy" turned up in the local Thrift Store. A comment was added by Bill Schuss: “Stanley Park Vancouver policeman. could be '’Bud Errington’' who was working the park when I worked at the Bear Booth concession stand in the early 1950's The horse would have been "Topper".
Proving once again, the power of the printed word, be it on paper or digital.
And, yes, a picture really can be worth a 1000 words.
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There was a lengthy article in the Times Colonist recently on the troubled state of the provincial oyster harvesting industry. Look closely at this photo, also courtesy of the Vancouver City Archives.
To gauge the size of that pile of oyster shells, compare it to the size of the man emptying the wheelbarrow on top!
