Photo of Britannia copper mine, British Columbia (Canada) c. 1925

$60.00 CAD

| /

Large landscape photo of the Britannia copper Mine, Howe Sound British Columbia.

Purple stamp on back:

Canadian Government Motion Picture Bureau
          (Still Photographic Division)
  DEPARTMENT of TRADE and COMMERCE
          OTTAWA, CANADA
This photograph is the property of Canadian Government Motion
Picture Bureau…R. S. PECK Director

 

Paper label glued on back, typewritten: ‘A typical copper mine in British Columbia, Canada.

Also handwritten french text with photo title.

18 x 23.50 cm //  7” x 9 ¼”

(Red text is an electronic watermark that is not physically part of the photo for sale)

 

The Britannia Mine Museum in Britannia Beach, 55 km kilometres north of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, on the Sea-to-Sky Highway on Howe Sound. The museum preserves and presents to the public information and artifacts related to British Columbia's mining industry

The museum is the site of Mill 3, also called the Concentrator. This 20 storey building, a gravity fed concentrator for ore processing, was designated as a National Historic Site of Canada in 1987. The Britannia Mine was an important source of copper ore for almost 70 years and during the 1920s and 1930s it constituted one of the largest mining operations in Canada. The gravity-fed concentrator was highly innovative,as, for example, in the use of bulk froth flotation.

 

The Canadian Government Motion Picture Bureau, founded as the Exhibits and Publicity Bureau in 1918, was the first national film production unit in the world. Its purpose was to produce films that promoted Canadian trade and industry. As the minister of Trade and Commerce put it in 1924, the Bureau “was established for the purpose of advertising abroad Canada’s scenic attractions, agricultural resources and industrial development.” However, the Bureau failed to keep up with technology and was severely hampered by financial difficulties during the Depression. It was absorbed into the National Film Board (NFB) in 1941.

Raymond Peck, the Bureau’s director from 1920 to 1927, was closely associated with Hollywood and once stated that he was “attempting at all times… to induce American capital and manufacturing interests to come into Canada and establish branch factories…. American motion-picture producers should be encouraged to establish production branches in Canada and make films designed especially for British Empire consumption.”

https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/canadian-government-motion-picture-bureau