About the Project

The Edges of Time: Cornerstones and Time Capsules of Early Victoria is a collaborative project, featuring the work of five different authors/web wizards. It is also a contextual project, built and designed as part of the Victoria’s Victoria website that hosts it. The goal of Victoria’s Victoria is to present the Victorian history of Victoria, British Columbia in a way that entertains the reader’s senses and critically augments and deepens the reader’s knowledge and perceptions of the past. All of the websites that are linked from the main page present historical themes and occurrences through the lens of “micro” history. The microhistorical process magnifies pieces of history. It relies heavily on detail and primary evidence to ask how specific people and events accurately reflect the dynamic conditions of society, environment, and culture through time. With this in mind, we hope that your exploration of The Edges of Time is complimented by an exploration of other feature websites. The people and places that are mentioned on this website can also be found on the websites that are linked from Victoria’s Victoria. Each website tells a different story. In order to fully appreciate these narratives, we recommend a good cup of tea and a strong curiosity for the eccentric adventures and misadventures that were had during the reign of Queen Victoria.

The Project Group

Alyssum Nielsen is a fourth year history major at the University of Victoria.

“I was drawn to this project because of my interest in hegemonies and how they can change through time and space. During the Victorian era, ideas of time shifted dramatically. Previously, hegemonic ideas of time were based on the bible. Events occurred during this era that forced the population to rethink these ideas. The purpose of microhistory is to think about these big ideas in the context of a smaller scale. This project lent itself well to this task. Victoria during the Victorian era can be seen as a microcosm for the British empire.”

alyssum@uvic.ca

Sonya White is a returning student at the University of Victoria.

"My travels and work with community-based organizations have engendered in me a strong sense of collective responsibility to the world that we share. From my perspective, this responsibility necessitates an acute understanding of where we come from. While working with the Columbia Basin Institute of Regional History in southeastern British Columbia, I stumbled onto the topic of heritage time capsules and cornerstones in the fall of 2005. It has been a delight to investigate the history of Victoria through the lens of tradition and ceremony, and to ask how the specific ceremony related to cornerstones and time capsules remembers the people and places of the past."

white_sonya@hotmail.com

Tine Cruickshank – UVic B.A. Honours History/English

"Old buildings have stories to tell and cornerstones are just the beginning. Most of the people who use these buildings everyday have no idea of the treasures hidden within their walls and beneath their foundations or of the amount of work that went into building them. To the early colonists, these buildings often meant something quite different than what they mean to us today. Building a church or a meeting hall worked into the colonial project and the early settlers’ views for the future of the Pacific Coast."

tinec@uvic.ca

Sarah Bowen is a fourth year history major at the University of Victoria

"Working on this project renewed my interest in the amazing heritage of Victoria, the founders, the buildings and the community. My hope for the site is to share with the larger community the incredible works that can be accomplished through a common goal, and like the buildings that surround us, seal that sense of community into the foundation of present day Victoria"

bowensj@uvic.ca

Alice Shether - Third Year Writing Major/History Minor at UVic

"I enjoyed this project not only because it introduced me to new subjects, but also because it exposed me to community based research and more complex web design. I loved the challenge of integrating history and technology."

aes@uvic.ca

Email the Group