"A baby show means work in the hardest sense": the better baby contests of the Vancouver and New Westminster Local Councils of Women, 1913-1929.

Abstract

IN THE SPRING OF 1916 Mrs. Charles Stoddard of the Vancouver Local Council of Women wrote to Mr. Rolston, the manager of the Vancouver Exhibition Association, concerning the fourth annual Better Baby Contest to be held in the fall. She was dissatisfied over the arrangements made for the previous year's contest and hoped that the provisions for the 1916 contest "[would] prove favourable to our committee." Mrs. Stoddard wanted prizes provided for the babies that would "be in line" with the prizes already given at the exhibition for "Horses and Cattle." She reminded Mr. Rolston that "A Baby Show means work in the hardest sense." Since its inception in 1913, the Better Baby Contest had been one of the most popular attractions at the Vancouver Exhibition. By 1916 the Daily Province reported that "No feature of the Exhibition aroused so much interest and enthusiasm as this competition." The Vancouver Council of Women sponsored the Better Baby Contest from 1913 until 1919, when it was abruptly moved to New Westminster. The New Westminster Local Council of Women then held the better baby contests at the Provincial Exhibition of the Royal Agricultural and Industrial (RA&I) Society in Queens Park from 1920 to 1929, when the exhibition buildings were destroyed by fire. Until the 1950s beautiful baby contests could still be found at the Pacific National Exhibition in Vancouver's