Recently I've been processing a 2017 accession, several hundred photographs in a number of formats, mainly individual film negatives and positives and several sizes of glass plate negatives.

The photographer was Bertram Archer, known as Bert, Howell. Most of the photos in the Oak Bay collection are undated; the few with dates fall between 1905 and 1908, when Bert Howell was living in Portland, Oregon. This is a first glimpse into the collection: more family history research, and investigation of photo subjects, remains to be done. Stay tuned for future updates as the collection is processed further.

Bert Howell 1877-1972

• 1877 Bertram Archer Howell, born Cowes, Isle of Wight, to parents Alfred and Jane Howell
• 1886 arrives Victoria with parents and several siblings; family first lives in Fernwood
• Alfred farms (market gardens), builds family home at 1940, later renumbered 2064, Marrion St
• 1890s Bert works as messenger for David Spencer dry goods store, then apprentices as electrician and works at George C Hinton’s.
• 1902 Bert in Whitehorse to help install one of Canada’s first automatic telephone exchanges
• 1905 Bert moves to Portland Oregon, to set up lighting and wiring for Lewis and Clark Exposition, lives there until Expo closes in 1911. (Another Oak Bay connection - John Olmsted, planner of the uplands subdivision, also planned the Lewis & Clark exposition grounds [source]) More about the Expo, and the electrical installations required, from the Oregon State Archives: link
• Returns to parents’ house in Victoria, works on wiring and lighting for the BC Legislature buildings (the 1912-1915 additions?).
• Serves aged 40 in Canadian Forestry Corps overseas WW1, 1917-19
• Continues to live in his parents’ house with unmarried sister Helen, working as an electrician until retirement 1951 [source: city directories]
• Prolific amateur photographer – sister Kathleen (Lena) worked in photography studios.
• The Oak Bay Archives Howell collection is only one lot from the sale held when Bert vacated the house in Marrion Street near the end of his life. Do any of the other lots of photographs or other material survive?
• Marrion Street was redeveloped by the municipality to create the Oak Bay Recreation Centre on Bee Street; its name survives in the Marrion Village Baptist Housing complex.
• More photos from the collection will be appearing at https://www.flickr.com/photos/oakbayarchives/albums/72177720297267214

Display themes:

Portland 1907-08

‘My Home Two Years’ – Dunning McEntee & Gilbaugh Undertakers & Embalmers on the ground floor, with furnished rooms above: 1-3-5 7^th St x Pine, Portland OR.

All dressed up, Bert Howell (3^rd from left) and unidentified friends, outside the corner of the same building.

On top of the Meier & Frank department store building in downtown Portland with an unidentified young woman, who also appears high up among the illuminated letters of the (rooftop?) MEIER & FRANK sign. Meier & Frank celebrated a 50^th anniversary in 1907 with extra illumination around the exterior of the building – Bert Howell may have been involved with the electrical preparations and installation.

Foot passengers disembark up the gangway from the “Ferry across Columbia River, Vancouver Washington”.

“Geo + Lena B. Council Crest /08” – George and Lena (Kathleen) Brownlee, Bert’s sister and brother in law, visiting Portland in 1908.

Déjeuner sur l'herbe, a picnic with friends. The young woman in the centre is identified in other photos as 'Bunch' and ‘Ida’, of Portland.

Early hydroelectric power in the Pacific Northwest

• Bert Howell’s Oregon photos show a professional interest in street lighting and exterior building illumination, and early hydroelectric plants.
• Outdoor urban lighting development was closely connected to development of hydroelectric generating capacity, especially in the Columbia River Basin, and long-distance electricity transmission
• Photos often combine an electrician’s focus with aesthetic appreciation of both machinery and natural settings

Documenting hydropower plants at Myrtle Creek (possibly Idaho), Willamina and Falls City, Oregon, and Doty, Washington, not dated [1905-1911].

Canadian forestry corps, WW1

P.1 of Bert Howell’s Attestation (WW1 Army registration) papers, 1917. Online here

Crowded troop tender – outside Victoria?

Bert Howell (R), aged 40, and two Army colleagues

Canadian soldiers in camp – a group in front of bell tents, Bert Howell seated at right

Canadian Army camp – open truck marked O.H.M.S. (On Her Majesty’s Service) carrying soldiers on a partly gravelled road bordered by whitewashed rocks, a row of tents and a low white building in background.

Canadian soldiers preparing to board a Canadian Pacific troop train. Station shed roof marking ends “NAGE”.

Two photos of life in Army barracks and/or on board troop ship for England.

Victoria BC

Park and fountain – Gorge or Butchart? Not dated.

Empress Hotel, downtown Victoria. Undated photo, Empress completed 1908.

‘Connie, Mrs Fisher, Mr Fisher, Oak Bay Ave’. See e.g. LJ Fisher, blacksmith, Mitchell St off Oak Bay Ave (1908 city directory)

‘Old Exibition [sic] Bldgs Victoria BC’ – Willows Fairground, the ‘Crystal Palace’. Undated, [1891-1907].

Victoria inner harbour from Songhees, near Esquimalt end of Johnson St bridge.

Gorge Bridge

‘Picnic, Head of Gorge’.

Questions? Please get in touch!

Website: https://www.oakbay.ca/archives

Photo Search: https://www.oakbay.ca/our-community/archives/photographs-view

Blog posts: https://connect.oakbay.ca/archives

Email: archives@oakbay.ca

Phone: 250-598-3290

- Post by Anna Sander, 1 May 2022.

To cite: Sander, Anna. (2022, May). 'A first look at Bert Howell's photos - Municipal Hall foyer display March 2022'. [Blog post]. District of Oak Bay, Archives. Retrieved from https://connect.oakbay.ca/admin/projects/archives/news_feed/howell [date].