The Winnipeg Rotary Club has re-published a book of early photographs of Winnipeg, with proceeds to benefit local literacy programs through facilities, collections and programs at Winnipeg’s Millennium Library.
The large-format, hardcover book, originally entitled An Illustrated Souvenir of Winnipeg was published in 1903 by Winnipeg commercial photographers William A. Martel & Sons. Copies sold for $2.00. It featured a short history of Winnipeg by James Elder Steen followed by over 600 photographs of buildings, streets, activities, and people of the growing city. The 2003 edition, re-titled Winnipeg: Images from a Century Ago features all contents of the original, plus a Preface by former Premier, The Honourable Duff Roblin, and an information page on Rotary Club. The photographs have been digitally enhanced so they are often better than the originals. The Winnipeg Free Press coordinated printing.
“This remarkable book gives Winnipeggers an opportunity to see our city as it was during a period of spectacular growth. It documents a watershed moment in Winnipeg’s development, as the City was becoming an important centre, not just in Manitoba, but in the entire Northwest,” said Don Phillips, co-chair of The Rotary Clubs of Winnipeg Literacy Project.
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Photo samples (click to enlarge) |
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Only a few copies of the original book were known to exist. One water-stained copy was discovered in the 1960s by the Saifer family in the basement of The New Occidental Hotel on Main Street. In early 2003, Larry Saifer showed the restored family keepsake to Winnipeg businessman Charles Shore. He was fascinated and approached The Rotary Clubs of Winnipeg and the Winnipeg Library Foundation with an idea to reprint it as a fundraising project with the proceeds to support literacy programs through the Millennium Library Foundation.
Page revised: 7 March 2009
