The history of Vancouver in bite-sized fun-facts and stories

There’s a reason why Major James Skitt Matthews has been dubbed The Man Who Saved Vancouver.

Irascible, endlessly energetic, and passionate about his adopted hometown, Matthews not only wrote, interviewed, and collected the city’s past, but also terrorized decades of mayors and councils in the name of his self-appointed mission: establishing—and later expanding—its archives. As a result of his efforts, Vancouver was the first city in the country to have its own civic archives, and the breadth of what he collected provides an invaluable glimpse into the city’s growth, stretching all the way back to the mid-1860s.

“Every British Columbian owes James Skitt Matthews an incalculable debt,” writes historian Daphne Sleigh in The Man Who Saved Vancouver, her biography of the archivist. “Had it not been for his extraordinary interest and persistence in searching out any item relating to the earliest history of Vancouver (and peripherally other parts of the province as well), we would have a much less graphic picture of the unique period when the city was born.”

Mike Mcardle tells us all about Major James Matthews in his segment “The Last Word” on CTV News Vancouver.