Search Results | Heritage Burnaby

Community Archives Collection series

https://search.heritageburnaby.ca/link/archivedescription97126

Repository: City of Burnaby Archives

Date: [188-]-2010

Collection/Fonds: Burnaby Historical Society fonds

Description Level: Series

Physical Description: Textual records and other materials

Scope and Content: Series consists of the Burnaby Historical Society's Community Archives collection. The Society's collection includes photographs, documents, ephemera, oral histories, and other records from a myriad of sources and donors, compiled to document the history of Burnaby.

Repository: City of Burnaby Archives

Date: [188-]-2010

Collection/Fonds: Burnaby Historical Society fonds

Series: Community Archives Collection series

Physical Description: Textual records and other materials

Description Level: Series

Scope and Content: Series consists of the Burnaby Historical Society's Community Archives collection. The Society's collection includes photographs, documents, ephemera, oral histories, and other records from a myriad of sources and donors, compiled to document the history of Burnaby.

History: The Burnaby Historical was founded in 1957. The Historical Society developed its Community Archives by collecting, compiling, and preserving records with historic value to the City of Burnaby. It gathered documents, photographs, and other items while also soliciting and acquiring entire collections or groups of archival records. In 1991, the Society was provided a permanent space to house their growing collection at the Burnaby Village Museum and they continued to grow their holdings. Following the creation of the City of Burnaby Archives in 2001, the Society and the City of Burnaby began discussing the possibility of uniting the two collections. In February 2007, an agreement was signed between the two institutions which resulted in the merger of the Society's Community Archives with the City Archives. All records collected by the Society were transferred into the custody of the City and moved from the Burnaby Village Museum to the City Archives in the McGill branch of the Burnaby Public Library.

Media Type: Textual Record; Photograph; Sound Recording; Cartographic Material

Notes: Title based on contents of series

Interview with W.H. O'Brien July / August 1975 - Track 8

https://search.heritageburnaby.ca/link/oralhistory25

Repository: City of Burnaby Archives

Date Range: [1932]-1936

Length: 0:11:12

Summary: This portion of the interview pertains to W.H. "Harry" O'Brien's involvement with the formation of the Army of the Common Good Credit Union (now the South Burnaby Credit Union).

1 image 1 audio

Repository: City of Burnaby Archives

Summary: This portion of the interview pertains to W.H. "Harry" O'Brien's involvement with the formation of the Army of the Common Good Credit Union (now the South Burnaby Credit Union).

Date Range: [1932]-1936

Photo Info: Harry and Gertrude (Sutherland) O'Brien on their wedding day, October 12, 1940. Item no. 315-005

Length: 0:11:12

Names: Darling, Gordon; Phillips, Turnie

Subjects: Organizations

Interviewer: Bradbury, Dr. Bettina

Interview Date: July / August 1975

Scope and Content: Recording is a taped interview with W.H. "Harry" O'Brien by SFU (Simon Fraser University) graduate student Bettina Bradbury. Major themes discussed are: the Army of the Common Good, the Union of the Unemployed and the Common Good Credit Union (now the South Burnaby Credit Union). To view "Narrow By" terms for each track expand this description and see "Notes".

Biographical Notes: W.H. “Harry” O’Brien was born in the coal mining town of Nanaimo, British Columbia on October 20, 1914. He came to Burnaby with his parents and five siblings in 1927. Harry’s mother, a school teacher, wanted her children to live closer to school in order to obtain a better education, so the O’Brien family settled at Inman Avenue, Burnaby. Harry's mother, Mary Anne Crossan, was Gilmore Avenue School's first teacher. Harry left school in June of 1929. Harry’s father worked as the caretaker at Central Park around this time and Harry helped him to clear brush, plant trees and enforce the land clearing and wood cutting permit regulations held by men who were on script. Although too young to vote by just over a week, Harry O'Brien worked as a scrutineer for the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) during the 1935 Federal Election. On October 12, 1940 Harry O'Brien married Gertrude Sutherland at St. John the Divine in Burnaby. The Sutherland family came to Burnaby from Winnipeg in 1933 and settled at Nelson Avenue. Harry began his involvement with the Unemployment Organization in Burnaby by participating in an organised protest against the municipality for homeowner evictions brought on by unpaid taxes. The South Burnaby Union of the Unemployed organised in order to protest rules around receiving Relief. Harry became involved, eventually becoming one of the spearheads of the organization, taking over as secretary by 1936. Harry was an original member of the Army of the Common Good, helping to produce over one hundred and twenty-five tons of vegetables from its own gardens to feed Burnaby citizens suffering from the lack of resources during the Depression years. The members of the Army of the Common Good who cut wood for consumption or worked in the gardens were given credit for their work through LU (Labour Units) which they could then use to buy groceries and that at the Army's Cooperative stores, one of which was at McKay Avenue, where Harry began working as Manager of Groceries in 1937. The Credit Union movement of British Columbia was also organized by Harry O'Brien and his fellow Army of the Common Good members. W.H. "Harry" O'Brien died July 1, 1992.

Total Tracks: 9

Total Length: 1:17:56

Interviewee Name: O'Brien, Harry

Interviewer Bio: Bettina Bradbury teaches history and women's studies at York University. She is the author of Wife to Widow. Lives, Laws and Politics in Nineteenth-century Montreal. (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, June 2011), 520p; Working Families. Age, Gender and Daily Survival in Industrializing Montreal. (Toronto: Canadian Social History Series, McClelland and Stewart, 1993); (Republished Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1996) (3rd edition, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2007). These interviews were undertaken after she completed her MA at Simon Fraser University in 1975 with the support of an LIP grant.

Collection/Fonds: Burnaby Historical Society fonds

Series: Community Archives Collection series

Subseries: Oral history subseries

Transcript Available: None

Media Type: Sound Recording

Web Notes: Interview was digitized in 2010 allowing it to be accessible on Heritage Burnaby. The digitization project was initiated by the Community Heritage Commission with support from City of Burnaby Council and the BC History Digitization Program of the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, University of British Columbia. It was recognized by the Heritage Society of BC with an award in 2012.