In early September, UBC Library staff and guests gathered to celebrate the unique Tremaine Arkley Croquet Collection, donated by Tremaine Arkley, a former player for the U.S. National Croquet Team. The collection includes fascinating illustrations, engravings, photographs, cartoons and paintings, dating from the 1850s to the 1950s.
University Librarian Ingrid Parent welcomed Mr. Arkley and his wife Gail, along with family and friends, to an evening of refreshments and a viewing of original and digitized items from the collection. One such digital display included stereographs—images that, when viewed with 3D glasses, came springing to life, much to the delight of those in attendance.
Mr. Arkley spoke passionately about the collection, and provided a fascinating history of croquet. Guests learned that the sport has a long egalitarian tradition—it was the first recreational activity that women could compete in publicly alongside men.
Having toured the Library’s Digitization Centre earlier in the day, Mr. Arkley remarked upon a revelation he experienced when learning about the digitization process. “It’s the great equalizer—digitization takes items of vastly differing individual values and makes them part of something greater. All these pieces are now available to anyone, rich or poor, anywhere in the world,” Arkley said. “The pieces in the collection don’t have that reach until they are digitized—but now these images are available to everyone.”
Mr. Pierre Dunn, President of the Vancouver Croquet Club, attended the event dressed in his regulation croquet whites and discussed his enthusiasm for the present-day sport. Guests were invited to attend a game, or perhaps sign up to join the Vancouver Croquet Club themselves!
Explore the Tremaine Arkley Croquet Collection online.
This story appeared in the Friends 2014 Winter issue.