Inside the Box - Guide House guest book

 

Archive team leader Emma was recently checking, and describing the contents of (cataloguing) this box of historic SVI Division and Area visitors' books.

 

This volume is the first guest book for Guide House - entries start in 1952 and end when the book was full in 1988.

It begins with an inscription from Olave, Lady Baden-Powell, who at that time was World Chief Guide. She writes, 

'I am so proud and glad to have been privileged to open this charming Guide Headquarters. May it be a valued centre for many happy gatherings, and give encouragement and inspiration to succeeding generations of Guides and Guiders for carrying out their own allotted tasks in this great World Fellowship that we all serve together. Best wishes to one and all.

'Olave Baden-Powell

'May 8th 1952'

 

Here are 3 photos from that guest book - dates and photographers are not noted and there are no captions. Archivists learn to be good detectives, assembling and evaluating clues from different sources and contexts to interpret data and objects. 

Where is this building? It's in a Guide House guest book, so we would expect that. It's fixed into the book, so it's not there by accident. The Girl Guide sign on the wall and the uniforms demonstrate the Guiding connection as well. The address is 1270, shown on a sign at the right of the picture. It's a Guide hall, certainly - but it's not the current Guide House in Mason Street; that's clear from the unusual shape of the building. 

Update: one of our Area Commissioners confirms that this was the previous Guide House, at 1270 Pandora Avenue. How do we check? The City of Victoria Archives holds a photo of the property from 1960 (click here) - that's the one.  We know it opened as Guide House in 1952. Was it a new building then? There's more to find out from the visitors' book itself and from Area records... The building was still there in 2015 - check the address on an internet maps site. And have a look next time you're in the 1200 block of Pandora!

When was this picture taken? It's in black and white, and the uniforms are specific to a certain period in Guiding. Is it from the opening? It seems a small group, and doesn't include Lady B-P.

 

These two photos are from the front of the guest book. The prints are in colour but they are very small, about 8x10 cm, so the detail is hard to make out. This shows one of the benefits of being able to digitally scan or photograph old photos and other archival materials: it's easy to magnify a digital image to see the details, and damaged photos can often be 'virtually repaired' so the image is clearer. This doesn't change or replace the original; it's a tool for understanding the original.

Here is a BIG group of Brownies; if you look at the full-size version of the photo, you will see Lady B-P standing near the top left; she must be giving a speech. The photo is from the front of the guest book - is Lady B-P opening Guide House? What else can we tell from this picture? What other questions do we need to ask? Where else might we look for answers?

 

This photo was mounted directly below the one of Brownies: it shows  a long procession of Guides with flags, outdoors, on a sidewalk, ready to go into a large stone building. There is no caption to explain the date or the occasion.

I think it's a Church Parade at the Anglican Christ Church Cathedral on Burdett Avenue in Victoria, probably on or near Thinking Day in February. What clues are there in the picture, and how could we check?

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We don't know any more about these photos yet! Tune in for more clues, probably more questions, and maybe an answer, in a future post... If you know the answers, please drop us a comment or an email.