Philip Timms' Vancouver

Commercial printer and photographer Philip Timms was a man of many accomplishments, but one of his greatest was the photographic record of Vancouver and the Lower Mainland that he created between 1900 and 1910. As Vancouver evolved from a colonial outpost to a well-established centre of industry and tourism, Timms sought to preserve for future generations views of the maturing city and its people as they were during his time, from landmark buildings to street scenes to children and families at play. Timms had spent 79 years as a printer and 70 as a photographer when he finally closed his shop on Commercial Drive in 1968 at age 94.James B. Stanton, curator of history at the Vancouver Museum in the early 1970s, wrote of Timms' work: "All of Timms' photographs have a certain recognisable quality about them; much of the kindness and gentleness of the man himself comes through. His shots are candid and uncluttered and capture dramatically the feeling and mood of the time." Award-winning authors Fred Thirkell and Bob Scullion selected the images for the book from over 800 of Timms' original picture postcards, showcasing those that best represent this esteemed photographer's work.