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The Vancouver Sun and Province are donating their collection of photographic negatives to the Vancouver Archives — the largest donation in the history of the civic institution.

The donation of an estimated two million images spanning more than half a century will more than double the Archives’ collection of 1.6 million negatives.

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The negatives include all photo shoots from the 1970s, ’80s and early ’90s, when the papers switched over to digital photography and electronic archiving. There are also many negs from the 1960s, some wonderful images from the 1950s, and a few from the 1940s.

The collection documents every facet of life in Vancouver, from politics to people, entertainment to sports, buildings to cityscapes.

Photo by Ken Oakes / PNG

The cache includes Ken Oakes’ dazzling 1960 shot of neon signs on Granville, Deni Eagland’s photos of the Beatles and their fans at Empire Stadium in 1964, and a famous Ralph Bower pic of Muhammad Ali pummelling George Chuvalo at the Pacific Coliseum in 1972.