Purchases of digital reproductions help to support the long-term processing, preservation and digitization of archival photographs at MONOVA.
About the collection
The MONOVA Archives currently houses over 100,000 photographs, dating from as early as the 1850s. A mix of black-and-white and colour, the images reflect a variety of photographic mediums: daguerreotypes, glass-plate negatives, tintypes, photographic postcards, acetate negatives, instant film (polaroid), paper-based prints (AC and fiber-based) and born-digital; styles of photography: panoramas, studio portraits, aerials, commercial photography, and documentary photography, and subjects: communities, family life, nature, city planning, schools, and recreation.
While these images individually capture specific historical moments in time, as a whole they visually document the transformation of the place we now call North Vancouver. From Streetcar 152 travelling up Lynn Valley Road to Harry and Valerie Jerome competing in track events to mountaineers traversing the rugged peaks of the North Shore mountains, amateur and professional photographers have long been captivated and inspired by North Vancouver, its people, and its surroundings. In this way, archival photographs at MONOVA help to bring the history of our community to life. While at the same time, showing the emergence and evolution of photography as an art and a practice over time.
Purchasing Archival Photos
You can purchase scans of photos from our collection for personal, commercial, or academic use. A full set of reproduction and use fees for image use is available to download on our website. To purchase a photo, please take note of the inventory number of the image from our online database and send your request to the archives team at archives@monova.ca. If you would like help finding images you can also contact the archives team for assistance.
Image scans are taken at an 8 x 10 inch ratio with a 600 dpi resolution. The scans are delivered as TIFF files via Dropbox upon payment. Examples of reproductions of our archival photograph can be seen throughout North Vancouver including at Tap & Barrel, The Gull, The End of the Line and throughout the Shipyards.
Learn more about the history of photography through the MONOVA collection by visiting our Archival View digital exhibition.
Have photographs you would like to donate to the collection? Contact the archives team via archives@monova.ca.
