Catalog of British Columbiana and Pacific Northwest Americana

Victoria: The Way It Was by Michael Kluckner is a richly illustrated historical retrospective that chronicles the early history and architectural heritage of Victoria, British Columbia. Featuring a blend of archival photographs and Kluckner's signature watercolor paintings, the 1986 book captures the city's charming streetscapes and historic buildings before they were transformed by modern development. Ultimately, it serves as both a nostalgic visual tribute and a valuable reference for those interested in the history and preservation of Canada's West Coast urban landscape.

175 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 25 x 31 cm

"From the establishment of Fort Victoria, BC's capital city has had a long history of prostitution. But little has been written on the lives of the women themselves--some of the most enterprising women in Victoria's past. Instead, these women's stories have been relegated to judgmental newspaper headlines. Now historian Linda J. Eversole takes a deeper look at their lives, from the mid-nineteenth century to the First World War and the Moral Reform movement. Story by story, from the fur trade, through confederation, waves of immigration, and attempts at reform and legislation, Eversole uncovers the histories of the women who made a living, and in some cases a fortune, from the world's oldest profession. With accompanying maps and historical photos, new research, and the support of the descendants of some of her subjects, Eversole presents a nuanced, human series of portraits that enhances our understanding of this important strand of the city's history."-- Provided by publisher

210 pages : illustrations ; 20 cm

Published in 2014 by heritage researcher and photographer Nick Russell, Victoria Then & Now: Postcards from the Past pairs vintage turn-of-the-century postcards with contemporary photographs to document the physical transformation of British Columbia’s capital city. The volume features side-by-side visual comparisons of prominent local landmarks alongside meticulous historical research detailing the changing streetscapes, businesses, and architecture of early Victoria. Beyond architectural changes, Russell digs into the personal micro-histories of the original senders and recipients inscribed on the cards, transforming a standard visual history into an intimate narrative of everyday human connection. A keen insight drawn from the text is how early postcards functioned as the social media and tourism marketing engines of their day; by intentionally packaging sanitized, picturesque views of colonial progress for cheap postal circulation, these historical artifacts actively manufactured a romanticized civic identity for an expanding Pacific Northwest

80 pages : colour illustrations, 1 colour map ; 14 x 22 cm

Victoria: The Fort by Derek Pethick is a 1968 historical account detailing the early, formative years of British Columbia's capital city. The book chronicles Victoria's rapid transformation from its origins as a remote Hudson's Bay Company fur-trading post in 1843 through the frantic expansion of the regional gold rushes. Pethick offers a well-researched exploration of the pivotal figures and economic shifts that defined the colonial era and laid the foundation for the modern urban center.

287 pages illustrations, portraits 24 cm

Lauded as a most interesting story of Victoria, this popular history introduces you to the intriguing tales of an amazing city nestled in the splendor of the Pacific Northwest. Victoria, A HarbourTown History will introduce you to the Lukwungen who were there before Victoria was Victoria and the powerful Hudson's Bay Company who came to dominate their area. You will also get to know the settlers, gold seekers, merchants, and visionaries who followed. Together, they created today's Victoria, one of the world's favorite destinations as well as a wonderful place to live.From bustling boom town to an almost abandoned settlement, Victoria's early years were marked by trial and triumph. Emerging as the centre of power and wealth in British Columbia, Victoria's leaders battled unsuccessfully retain its dominance over Vancouver. Eventually becoming a delightful English-like city surrounded by stunning scenery, this story will show you the Victoria hidden beneath its glamourous image. Enriched by the tales of the leaders who loved and transformed it and the stories of most memorable buildings, this concise, comprehensive history will introduce you to one of the world's favorite destinations.Designed for those who love Victoria, those who enjoy history, and those who simply enjoy a good read, this new popular history is sure to please.

141 pages : illustrations, map ; 22 cm

Grant was 76 when he dictated his memoirs to Clothild Bruneau Grant, the last in his fairly long line of wives. Meikle has ably edited the manuscript down to focus on his life in the 1850s and '60s, when Grant galloped across the western Montana frontier, making a name for himself as an early pioneer and trader. Grant's eyewitness accounts of frontier life, from a stage overturning to the hanging of highwaymen, the Mormon rising of 1857 and the discovery of gold, give readers an absorbing glimpse into his rough-and-ready times. --Copyright 1996 Cahners Business Information, Inc

xii, 223 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, maps, portraits ; 24 cm

Josephine E. Watts’s Vernonia: The Town That Would Not Die recounts the resilient economic and civic history of the Nehalem Valley’s principal settlement. Watts chronicles the arrival of pioneer homesteaders in the 1870s who carved farms out of old-growth rainforest along the Nehalem River, detailing how the town was transformed into a bustling industrial powerhouse during the 1920s with the construction of the colossal Oregon-American Lumber Company mill. The work documents the devastating closure of the mill in 1957, illustrating how local civic leaders, merchants, and families organized grassroots campaigns to diversify the economy through reforestation, municipal parks, and the Vernonia Friendship Jamboree. The chronicle preserves detailed records of community life, schools, and family businesses across Vernonia, Keasey, Mist, Treharne, and Clear Creek.

208 pages : illustrations, portraits ; 23 cm

Researched and written by members of the Vernon & District Family History Society, this book concerns the internment camp that operated in Vernon B.C. during and after World War I. In that time, over 1000 ‘enemy aliens’ from the then AustroHungarian, German, and Ottoman empires passed through its gates. Vernon Internment Camp was one of largest in the country and one of only two camps that interned women and children. In the estimation of the Officer Commanding Internment Operations in Canada, Vernon’s was “the most difficult of our camps.” The book takes you into the lives of the internees and guards with numerous biographical sketches, great photographs from local, national and international sources, details of camp life, and the reactions of Vernon's citizens. There is also information about the neighbouring ‘work camps’ at Mara, Edgewood and Monashee, where prisoners were forced to build roads through the wilderness.

27 pages : illustrations, maps ; 27 cm

"Vanport City, Oregon, was conceived in 1942 as a temporary housing project for the families of men and women who came to the Pacific Northwest to work in the Kaiser shipyards and further the war effort (World War II). Situated on a flood plain between Vancouver, Washington, and Portland, Oregon, the Columbia River reclaimed the city for its own in a flood on Memorial Day, 1948. In its brief but vital lifetime, Vanport pushed the Portland area into a new era of change and development, leaving a legacy that is felt even today. During its time, Vanport was the largest housing project in the United States, (perhaps the world) and the second largest city in Oregon"--Cover

xiv, 151 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

232 pages : illustrations (chiefly color) ; 24 x 30 cm

Women in Blue is a comprehensive history of women in the VPD from 1904 (as it turns out) through 1975. For decades, VPD history noted that the first females were hired in 1912, but it turns out four matrons were hired between 1904 and 1912. The matrons performed many of the same duties as the police women who were hired in 1912.

266 pages : illustrations (some colour), portraits ; 28 cm

Traces the history of Vancouver's expedition to explore and map the west coast of North America

xi, 131 p. : ill. (some col.) ; 25 x 26 cm.

Edmond S. Meany’s 1907 text, Vancouver's discovery of Puget Sound, provides a detailed biographical ledger of the imperial cartography that fundamentally redefined the geographic identity of the Pacific Northwest. Chronicling Captain George Vancouver’s 1792 maritime expedition, the text details how British naval officers systematically renamed the ancient, complex marine highways and prominent peaks of the Coast Salish peoples, assigning the names of European aristocrats, diplomats, and crewmen to vital geographical features like Mount Rainier, Mount Baker, and Puget Sound. This act of imperial mapping constituted a profound linguistic superimposition, drafting the official navigational blueprints that would later guide the maritime supply chains and coastal infrastructure of incoming Euro-American pioneers. Furthermore, to survive the treacherous tidal currents and successfully chart the labyrinthine inlets, Vancouver's isolated crew engaged in intense cooperative maritime labor and frequently relied on observing the established coastal villages and deep environmental knowledge of local indigenous communities. Ultimately, Meany’s biographical catalog illustrates how initial naval exploration formally mapped a European bureaucratic framework directly onto a highly managed, pre-existing indigenous seascape, setting the stage for subsequent territorial settlement and corporate resource extraction.

xvii, 344 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm

Popular wisdom maintains that the colourful Chinese quarters of Canadian, American, and Australian cities owe their existence to the generations of Chinese immigrants who have made their lives there. The restaurants, pagodas, and neon lights are seen as intrinsically connected to the Chinese and their immigrant experience in the West. Kay Anderson argues, however, that "Chinatown" is a Western construction, illustrative of a process of cultural domination that gave European settlers in North America and Australia the power to define and shape the district according to their own images and interests. -- From publisher's description

x, 323 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm

Vancouver on the Columbia: An Illustrated History by Ted Van Arsdol, featuring photo research by Sheila Guenther and produced in cooperation with the Greater Vancouver Chamber of Commerce, is a comprehensive 1986 civic history of Washington state's oldest continuously inhabited non-Native settlement. The book chronicles the city's rich evolution from its origins as a prominent Hudson's Bay Company fur-trading outpost and U.S. military garrison (Fort Vancouver) into a modern industrial, shipping, and commercial hub along the Columbia River. Ultimately, enriched by an extensive collection of archival photographs and business profiles, it serves as a highly visual and engaging tribute to the pioneer heritage, economic milestones, and enduring community identity of Vancouver, Washington.

160 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 28 cm

George Salier Willis Nicholson’s Vancouver Island's West Coast 1762-1962 chronicles two centuries of maritime exploration, indigenous encounter, and pioneer resource extraction along one of the Pacific Northwest’s most unforgiving shorelines. The narrative meticulously maps the treacherous, storm-battered topography that defines the seaward edge of the island, stretching across deep, glaciated fjords like Nootka and Clayoquot Sounds, which are walled in by dense temperate rainforests and the rugged Insular Mountains. By detailing the area’s notorious reputation as the "Graveyard of the Pacific"—evidenced by the book’s extensive catalog of maritime disasters—Nicholson illustrates how the perilous combination of dense fogs, violent winter gales, and jagged offshore reefs constantly threatened early marine transit and commercial shipping. The text traces how subsequent pioneer enterprises, including isolated coastal logging camps, commercial salmon canneries, and whaling stations, were forced to operate entirely dependent on these dangerous aquatic highways due to the impassable nature of the island’s interior. Ultimately, the book captures the extreme physical isolation of Vancouver Island's outer coast, demonstrating how the constant battle against this formidable, wave-swept geography fundamentally shaped the cultural and industrial survival of its remote coastal enclaves.

Index of shipwrecks. History from the time of the landing of the Spaniards and Captain Cook

356 pages : illustrations, portraits, maps (on lining papers) ; 25 cm

Found on the history shelves of the Greater Victoria Public Library, these twenty true stories are brought to life by Stephen Ruttan. They draw a picture of the life of a city with a recent past that's both unconventional and colourful. From Miss Wilson and her famous parrot, Louis, to Jimmy Chicken Island, named after a man who acquired his surname from his habit of stealing chickens, to the Pig War, when Britain and the United States nearly came to blows over the San Juan Islands, to the rise and fall of Francis Rattenbury, one of Victorias best-known architects, these stories reveal a lively history of a West Coast capital city. Archival illustrations, newspaper clippings, and modern photos help make Vancouver Island Scoundrels, Eccentrics and Originals a delightful and illluminating read.

184 pages : illustrations (some colour), maps, portraits ; 19 cm.

The history of railroads on Vancouver Island begins in 1863. Turner presents the stories of the lines, the men who built them, and the locomotives and cars that gave them a unique character. Included is the saga of the Dunsmuirs, the coal barons and railroad builders who influenced the entire history of the Island

170 pages illustrations 29 cm

"From savouring wild blackberry desert wine in Cobble Hill to professional tea leaf readings at the Calico Cat, browsing the local produce at the Qualicum Farmers' Market and gazing up at the country's largest tree in Cheewhat Lake, this is the MUST list every Islander MUST have. From the wild, windswept shores of surfing town Tofino to the best bang-for-your-buck breakfast, it is all here."-- Provided by publisher

pages cm.

Published in London in 1865 after the author's five-year residency in Victoria, Matthew Macfie’s Vancouver Island and British Columbia offers a comprehensive geographical, historical, and economic assessment of the twin Pacific colonies during the transformative Cariboo Gold Rush. A keen insight drawn from the text is how Macfie strategically weaponizes his critique of the monopolistic Hudson's Bay Company, arguing that true imperial prosperity and a robust defense against American expansionism required both the immediate political union of the two colonies and the construction of a transcontinental railway. Functioning as sophisticated promotional literature for prospective British emigrants, the volume meticulously catalogs the region's agricultural, mining, and timber potential while actively minimizing the complex realities of the existing Indigenous and growing Chinese populations. Consequently, the book stands as a quintessential artifact of Victorian colonial boosterism that accurately forecasted the infrastructural and political integration that would ultimately define western Canada.

xxi, 574 pages, 2 unnumbered pages, 3 leaves of plates (2 folded) : illustrations, frontispiece, 2 color maps ; 23 cm

Vancouver has experienced many dramatic changes since its beginnings on the edge of the frontier. Once an almost inaccessible logging town, it has grown to be a major North American urban centre, and a jewel of the Pacific Rim. Within a mere century, it has metamorphosed from a little ventured rainforest to a thriving and cosmopolitan metropolis. This book tells the extraordinary story of that coming of age. 150 striking images, carefully reproduced, capture Vancouver in every phase of its growth. See the boomtown created by the coming of the railway. The land of mansions and motor car bought by the Roaring Twenties. The lean city of the Depression and the war years. The scene of intense urban expansion since the fifties. An entertaining chronicle, this Vancouver photo history is essential for every visitor and resident.

272 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 29 cm.

Absolutely unique in its presentational style, Vancouver: A Visual History is a delightful and important book. This stunning, full-colour historical atlas brings to life Vancouver s first fourteen decades, beginning with a map of the 1850s depicting the land use, economy and settlement patterns of its first peoples, and ending with a map of the 1980s. Using a repeating grid format, in which each ten-year period of the city s history is examined through the application of the same criteria, each decade is introduced by a full-colour map that illustrates land use patterns. A column of text to the left of this map describes the major land use changes that have occurred since the previous decade; to the right of the map are notes that provide related details of the city s evolving history. Following each double-page map, the reader is introduced to the prominent personalities of the decade, in the area of sports, politics, business, labour, culture and community service, as well as given an overview of each period s economic focus, settlement patterns, political directions and key historical events

xi, 84 p. : ill. (some col.), col. maps, ports. ; 32 cm.

Alan Morley’s Vancouver from Milltown to Metropolis chronicles the explosive industrial and urban evolution of Canada’s premier Pacific port city, detailing its rapid transition from a remote, heavily forested logging outpost to a vital hub of global commerce. The narrative meticulously maps the strategic but formidable coastal geography of the Burrard Inlet peninsula, securely wedged between the volatile alluvial delta of the Fraser River and the towering, precipitous barrier of the Coast Mountains. By detailing the settlement’s crude origins at early lumber camps like Hastings Mill, the book illustrates how the sheer biological mass of the climax temperate rainforest initially pinned early pioneers against the shoreline, forcing a complete reliance on sheltered aquatic highways for survival and initial resource extraction.

The text highlights the profound geographic turning point when this protected, deep-water oceanic anchorage was selected as the western terminus of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Morley demonstrates how piercing the massive, unyielding alpine ranges of the interior with transcontinental rail finally shattered the region's profound physical isolation, seamlessly linking the landlocked resource wealth of the vast Canadian expanse with lucrative Pacific shipping lanes. Ultimately, the account captures the defining environmental realities of British Columbia's coastal nexus, demonstrating how clearing an impenetrable forest, maximizing a natural deep-water harbor, and conquering a massive continental divide were the absolute prerequisites for transforming a rugged pioneer milltown into a mechanized, integrated maritime metropolis.

xiii, 227 pages illustrations 4.17

Chuck Davis and Shirley Mooney’s Vancouver: An Illustrated Chronology, published in partnership with the Vancouver Board of Trade, documents the rapid municipal and commercial ascension of British Columbia’s primary urban center from its mid-nineteenth-century colonial origins through the late twentieth century. The illustrated narrative traces the systematic superimposition of orthogonal street grids, industrial wharves, and municipal real estate developments directly over the ancestral villages, seasonal shellfish beds, and marine corridors stewarded by Coast Salish nations, specifically the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples. Davis and Mooney detail the vital mechanics of regional transportation and capital expansion, showing how the arrival of the transcontinental Canadian Pacific Railway terminus on Burrard Inlet, alongside early operations at Hastings Mill and extensive harbor dredging, turned False Creek and Coal Harbour into high-volume transshipment hubs. Ultimately, the chronology illustrates how civic boosterism, corporate rail networks, and heavy maritime extraction permanently converted an intricate estuarine and rainforest ecology into Canada's preeminent Pacific deep-water gateway.

288 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 29 cm

Van Olinda's History of Vashon-Maury Island by pioneer resident O.S. Van Olinda, compiled and edited by regional historian Roland N. Carey, is a 1985 local history that preserves the foundational settlement narrative of this prominent Puget Sound island community. Based largely on Van Olinda’s early 20th-century writings and personal reminiscences, the volume chronicles the transformation of Vashon and its connected neighbor, Maury Island, from dense, remote timberlands into a thriving agricultural hub. The book meticulously details early logging operations, the booming greenhouse and strawberry farming industries, and the profound reliance on the "Mosquito Fleet" steamers that bridged the geographical isolation between the islanders, Seattle, and Tacoma. Ultimately, it serves as an indispensable, primary-source-driven resource for local historians seeking an intimate, grassroots perspective on the pioneer families, civic development, and resilient maritime culture that shaped the heart of Puget Sound.

84 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm