City of Vancouver Heritage award winner, 2003

Frank Gowen's Vancouver extended from White Rock to the Sunshine Coast, as the photographer and his camera explored the playgrounds and edifices of a vibrant West Coast community. In the city itself, Stanley Park, and particularly the park's famed Hollow Tree, became Gowen's personal domain.

In this era when the picture postcard was firmly entrenched as a popular means of communication, Gowen's images travelled around the world, establishing an ever-growing awareness of one of the world's finest harbours and the lands that surrounded it. The pictures selected for this book provide a testimonial to the heritage and natural beauty of BC's Lower Mainland.

Fred Thirkell (1930–2009) was born and educated in Vancouver. He obtained his Licentiate in Theology from Anglican Theological College in 1954, and worked as a minister in communities throughout BC and Nova Scotia. He also worked as program coordinator for the Anglican diocese of the Kootenays in Nelson, BC, and as a social worker for the Children’s Aid Society in Vancouver. Fred was keenly interested in history, and he got hooked on collecting vintage postcards while living in Nova Scotia. He later began matching these rare images he had collected with mini-histories. He and Bob Scullion published their first book featuring postcards in 1996.

Fred Thirkell's profile page

Bob Scullion (1937-2009) was born in Glasgow, Scotland, one of Britain's best-preserved Victorian cities. Living there gave him an enthusiasm for and appreciation of cities and their history.

He and Fred Thirkell published eight books with Heritage House in the postcard genre. Four of their books won City of Vancouver Heritage Awards: Breaking News, Frank Gowen's Vancouver, Vancouver and Beyond and Postcards from the Past.

Bob Scullion's profile page