local sources

Most local archives and museums maintain photo collections.  Pictures of school buildings, and school teachers and pupils, are usually included in these collections.

You can do a preliminary, on-line search for relevant photographs by consulting the BC Archives Union List. 

But remember, local museums and archives only scan a small percentage of the pictures in their collections.  If you want to be comprehensive, you'll need to consult the finding aids, inventories, and catalogues available in hard copy at your local museum or archives.

That being said, some of the larger city and municipal archives have very good on-line search pages. The following sites are particularly useful:

City of Vancouver Archives
The Vancouver City archives has a first rate Photo Search page, with detailed descriptions of its huge collection of photographs, and digitized scans of nearly 5,000 images.

City of Richmond Archives
This is also a good place for locating and viewing historical photographs. The Search Page is clear and intuitive, and it provides access to hundred of on-line photographs of local schools.

University of British Columbia Library. Special Collections
The Historical Photograph Database contains descriptions of about 200,000 images.   Nearly 30,000 images have been digitized and placed on-line. As might be expected, a substantial number of the historical images relate to education and schools throughout the province.

The largest inventory of on-line images from all parts of the province is held at the BC Archives.