Reflections - The Photographs of Earle and Estelle Dickey

Revelstoke Museum and Archives is currently working on a book featuring the photographs of Earle and Estelle Dickey. For over 40 years, Earle and Estelle recorded a great deal of the history of Revelstoke and the surrounding district through their photographs. Earle was born in Revelstoke in 1893 and worked as an electrical superintendent for the city. Estelle came to Revelstoke in 1916 as a clerk for the C.B. Hume Department Store and married Earle in 1920. Earle was active as the publicity chairman for the Board of Trade and many of his photographs were used to promote the city. Prior to his death in 1954, Earle took all of the photographs and Estelle developed them in her home darkroom. Estelle also learned the art of hand-colouring Earle's black and white photographs and they sold many of their coloured works. After Earle's death, Estelle took over as a photographer. As well as capturing many of the people, places and events of Revelstoke and district, she also worked as a commercial photographer. Estelle passed away in 1980.

Earle and Estelle's family donated the bulk of their collection of images to Revelstoke Museum and Archives, and each image has been catalogued and scanned. The entire collection of negatives, 1-inch slides, 2-inch slides and prints comprises over 1,500 images. Our "Book Committee" has spent hours going through the collection and selecting about 100 to be included in the book. We are now completing the text and captions and hope to get the book to the printer next week. We are anticapting that the book will be ready for sale for October and we are planning a book launch, with details to be announced in the future. We are very pleased to have received funding for this project from the Columbia Kootenay Cultural Alliance. We are excited about the upcoming launch of the book.