Harropian Books

[Mapping Chinese Canadians] 1957 Insurance Plan of New Westminster, BC

British Columbia Underwriters' Association

Vancouver, BC: British Columbia Underwriters' Association, 1957. Hardcover. Set of mid-century insurance plans recording the final ethnographic erasure of the last of three Chinatowns once extant in New Westminster, BC, a consequence of the final demolition of the Riverside Apartments in 1948. In Canada, only Victoria's Chinatown was established earlier than the one in New Westminster, with previously published BC insurance maps, i.e. Moodyville on Burrard Inlet and Nelson and Kaslo in the Kootenays, mapping the locations of many Chinese Canadian businesses and residences. Their complete absence here denotes a significant cartographic abolishment happening within about 70 years. Surely an expedient result, given that the size of the Chinese Canadian community in New Westminster was reported in an 1885 Royal Commission as being 1,680 out of a population of 4,000. Ref. Heritage BC. A loosely bound set of insurance plans ("April 1957" & "Copy No. 26" on Key page) held in the publisher's original 7-ring binder, with the printed title "New Westminster" inserted into a spine pocket and "British Columbia Underwriters' Association" stamped in green onto upper cover. Consisting of 46 heavy card leaves, 40 of which are coded and colored plans, with two being blanks and four having explanatory text with street and block indexes. Plans measure 13 x 12 inches wide, w. some being fold-outs (Key Map is 3-page fold-out) all showing commercial and public buildings, schools, churches and private dwellings with the type of construction materials used. Volume covers w. light wear, interior leaves with some toning and occasional pencil notation, finger soil or a stray mark, one small fold-out extension is free from it's linen hinge, else maps are fine. Near Fine. Item #4750

Collated, with all 53 numbered plans, some being printed verso, all present as called for in the Key Plan.

Price: $1,200.00 CAD  other currencies