Photograph of Canadian Pacific Railway steam locomotive no. 6151, a 0-6-0 Switcher (built in 1905 and 1906) at Victoria, British Columbia. A railway labourer looks to be cleaning or painting the side of the locomotive.
Photograph of Canadian Pacific Railway steam locomotive no. 6151, a 0-6-0 Switcher (built in 1905 and 1906) at Victoria, British Columbia. A railway labourer looks to be cleaning or painting the side of the locomotive.
Photographic postcard of a Canadian Pacific Railway train pulling into the train station at Barnet. The caption on the bottom of the card reads: "The Depot. Barnet B.C."
Photographic postcard of a Canadian Pacific Railway train pulling into the train station at Barnet. The caption on the bottom of the card reads: "The Depot. Barnet B.C."
1 photograph : sepia ; 5 x 5 cm on page 11.5 x 14 cm (pasted in album)
Scope and Content
Photograph of a Great Northern Railway train going through the Burnaby Lake area. The railroad was built along the north shore of Burnaby Lake in 1904.
1 photograph : sepia ; 5 x 5 cm on page 11.5 x 14 cm (pasted in album)
Description Level
Item
Record No.
477-133
Access Restriction
No restrictions
Reproduction Restriction
No known restrictions
Accession Number
2007-12
Scope and Content
Photograph of a Great Northern Railway train going through the Burnaby Lake area. The railroad was built along the north shore of Burnaby Lake in 1904.
Recording is a taped interview with Charles A. Purdon and May E. Purdon by SFU graduate student Bettina Bradbury July 9, 1975. Major themes discussed are: the Depression and Canadian politics. To view "Narrow By" terms for each track expand this description and see "Notes".
Biographical Notes
May Eliza was born in London, England in 1907. She came out to Regina with her family when she was eleven.
Charles A. Purdon was born February 28, 1904 in London, England. He came to Canada in 1925 from China where he had been working as an accountant for the previous three years. Charles first came to Vancouver and joined the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) but within a week he was sent to Regina. This is where he met May.
May and Charles got married in 1926 and Charles began working as an accountant for the Saskatchewan Wheat Growers, then for the Canadian Wool Growers before being laid off.
In October of 1930, Charles and May left Regina for Vancouver Island. Charles drove himself out and May rode the train with her children; twin boys and a daughter, only one year apart. They settled at May’s parent’s second house in Coombs.
The Purdons arrived in Burnaby in December of 1932 and rented a house on Edmonds Street. Charles was unable to do road work and instead found work through the Liberal Party and also with the Municipal engineers indoors on a number of projects.
In 1938 the Purdons were able to get into a reverted house built by Ernie Winch at Maple Avenue (then Jubilee) and Nelson Avenue that had nine bedrooms. They paid ten dollars a month to the municipality for use of this property.
May Eliza Purdon died April 6, 1983 at the age of seventy-six.
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.
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.
Audio Tracks
Track one of interview with Charles A. Purdon and May E. Purdon
Track one of interview with Charles A. Purdon and May E. Purdon
Photograph of the steam locomotive known as "Old Curly" at rest in front of a treed lot in South Surrey. There are four men in the picture. William Surgenor is the man holding an oil can, standing second to the left. The other three men are unidentified. Smoke is pouring out of the locomotive's chi…
Photograph of the steam locomotive known as "Old Curly" at rest in front of a treed lot in South Surrey. There are four men in the picture. William Surgenor is the man holding an oil can, standing second to the left. The other three men are unidentified. Smoke is pouring out of the locomotive's chimney.
Photographic postcard of men and women standing by the railway tracks. There is a couple standing together on the left of the photograph, who have been identified as Dave and Birdie. Dave is holding an umbrella in one hand, and holding Birdie's hands with the other hand. The other three people are …
Photographic postcard of men and women standing by the railway tracks. There is a couple standing together on the left of the photograph, who have been identified as Dave and Birdie. Dave is holding an umbrella in one hand, and holding Birdie's hands with the other hand. The other three people are standing on the right side of the photograph and two of them have been identified as F. Graham, and Jack. A tall woman standing on the extreme right of the photograph has been unidentified. Annotations on the front of the photograph read: "Dave / Birdie / F. Graham / Jack / ?"
Photograph of an unidentified young woman in skirt and blazer with a camera box by her hip and the box strap over her shoulder. She is standing on a railway track at an unidentified location.
Photograph of an unidentified young woman in skirt and blazer with a camera box by her hip and the box strap over her shoulder. She is standing on a railway track at an unidentified location.