British Columbia History

I enjoyed the article about the Black pioneers who settled on Salt Spring Island. As I read it, I recalled a visit to the island some years ago when a friend who was an architect pointed out a house that reflected the style of houses built in parts o

Manjit Singh Sandhu, MS352 Clearbrook artist Manjit Singh Sandhu is obsessed with history, especially Fraser Valley history. He has painted over 300 paintings of Abbotsford history alone. His work began in the lead-up to the 100-year celebration of t

Kitagawa family collection Mokichi Kitagawa came to Canada in the wake of the unrest that swept Japan following the Russo-Japanese War. During the First World War he married Rise Kobayashi and together they made a new life in British Columbia. Their

Canadian Museum of History, 71403 LS I began the art of felting wool over a year ago, because I wanted to feel my hands slide over the soapy warm fibres. It was so satisfying that I wanted more: I wanted to learn more about fibres and how they held t

City of Vancouver Archives, AM54-S4-: SGN 435.1 Laundry services grew to become a Chinese-dominant industry in British Columbia throughout the late 1800s to the 1960s as racism and discriminatory policies pushed Chinese immigrants into challenging ni

Barry Gough collection  My earliest years, I recall, passed in paradise.1 Southernmost Vancouver Island seemed then, as Governor James Douglas remarked almost a century before my birth there, “the perfect Eden.” We lived in natural contentment with a

Nikkei National Museum, 2010.80.2.76 As the COVID crisis was emerging in mid-March, I was going about my daily life and I started to feel this deja-vu feeling as I watched the news and as life as we knew it started to shut down. First the travel ban,

Loose housing system. The cows are waiting to go into the milking parlour, 1970s. BC Dairy Historical Society Photo Gallery archives Before the 1970s, dairy cows on most BC dairy farms were housed in tie stall or stanchion barns for at least six mont

(Mark Forsythe travels through BC, and back in time, exploring the unique work of British Columbia Historical Federation Members) Time itself seems to have ground to a halt. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced people and organizations to take stock, and

Daniel Collins, Ref. AM1675-S4-F47-: 2018-020.7591 Like all archives, the City of Vancouver Archives recognizes the role of both digitization and public outreach in raising awareness of our holdings and increasing access. Over the past two years, thr

Stories and experiences in British Columbia’s diverse history are explored through many types of digital media. This edition of “Past Forward” features two interactive experiences: a quiz about Residential School locations and stories from a historic

As COVID-19 changed the lives of people in our province and around the world, many of us have looked to history to help us understand an unprecedented time. How did Canada and the world respond to the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918-1920? What lessons r

“This book is the product of the Chiefs’ recognition of the need to share our history with our own people and our neighbours before the knowledge becomes lost. Our Old Ones took care of our oral traditions and histories by preserving them even when t

The iron lung was developed to assist the breathing of patients with the severe form of poliomyelitis (polio) a contagious disease that causes flu-like symptoms, but can cause muscle paralysis, difficulty breathing, and sometimes death. According to

Nelson’s first courthouse constructed in 1893 was later considered to be “entirely inadequate to the demands of the legal profession” so it was moved one block to make room for a newer facility. For the vacated site, F.M. Rattenbury designed an impos