When The Vancouver Sun and Province moved out of their offices in 2024, a frantic effort was made to save items and place them into storage. At the last moment, a pair of tall, slender cardboard boxes were spotted atop a wooden cart. Inside lay a cache of historic newspapers of great significance.
Discovery of a Royal Treasure
One box contained a complete copy of the Vancouver Daily Province from May 27, 1939, marking the first visit of a reigning monarch to Vancouver. King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, later known as the Queen Mother, were on a four-week tour of Canada and the United States, aimed at rallying support for Britain ahead of the Second World War.
Both The Province and The Sun commemorated the event with special sections dedicated to the royal visit. While digital versions are available on Newspapers.com, the physical papers offer a unique impact. These true broadsheets measure 23 inches high by 17 inches wide, or 58.4 by 43.2 centimeters.
Stunning Front Pages
The Province's front page for May 27, 1939, is striking. It features the headline “Long Live The King!” in elegant script, above a large photo of King George looking dignified in full dress uniform. A chain links the emblems of Canada’s provinces around the King’s photo, with Ontario at the top and British Columbia on the left. At the bottom is the Royal Coat of Arms of Canada. The page is printed in a lovely light blue, with the headline and backgrounds around the provincial emblems in darker blue, while photos and emblems remain black and white. This contrast creates a beautiful vintage photomontage effect.
The Sun's cover is in sepia tone and features a full-page portrait of the King and Queen, with illustrations of their crowns in the corners. Below The Vancouver Sun logo is the declaration “Only Evening Newspaper Owned, Controlled and Operated by Vancouver People.” At the bottom, the Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom sits atop a scroll reading “Their Majesties.”
Condition of the Papers
The Province cover is in very good condition, save for a missing chunk on the lower left. Unfortunately, The Sun’s cover is in poor shape, split in two, though the image remains clear. The Sun’s royal section is small, just four pages, and is falling apart. In contrast, the 20-page Province royal section is part of a complete paper that can be leafed through without crumbling. At the time, The Province was a larger paper, with 126 pages compared to The Sun’s 92 pages, which also included a souvenir print of the Royal Family.
What makes the May 27 papers even more alluring is that both came with special sections on the Hotel Vancouver on Burrard Street, which opened to coincide with the royal visit.
