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This decorative design dating from 1904 includes typical British Columbian motifs such as dogwood blossoms, logs, a thunderbird, and other First Nations motifs. The BC Archives website contains a listing of BC newspapers on microfilm. There have been hundreds of newspapers over the past decades in BC. Bannerhead designs vary from region to region and have become, over time, less decorative and, perhaps, less evocative of qualities of regional culture and environment that the papers serve.
Woodward's established a mail-order department in 1896 and published its first catalogue in 1897. Vancouver's population more than doubled in the first decade of the 1900s, from 13,700 in 1891 to 27,000 in 1901. Woodward's market included the interior and coastal BC and, in the Klondike gold rush era, the north. A small number of products were manufactured in British Columbia. Most items were imported from England and from across Canada. Little is known about the designers and illustrators of the catalogues.
Early catalogues contained dress goods, ladies' wear, men's and boys' clothing, luggage, hardware, and jewellery. These were little more than price lists with line drawings and, on rare occasions, photographs. As British Columbia's economy boomed in the early years of the 20th century before the outbreak of the First World War, the catalogues grew in number of pages, variety of goods, and production quality.
In 1902 Woodward's moved to larger premises in Vancouver's new commercial district at the corner of Hastings and Abbott. New departments were introduced. Groceries were added to the catalogues, a service that was especially appreciated by people living in isolated areas where supply was sporadic. A separate grocery list was prepared for Albertans. The spring-and-summer catalogue proclaimed: "Cash business is part of the success of our large and growing business. We keep no books, have no accountants, thereby saving thousands of dollars to those who patronize this store."
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