Themes

Alcohol Consumption

Spirits in Victoria

Created by Steven Robinson

The sale of "spirituous liquors" became a huge business in Victoria throughout the 1860's. There was a large amount of money in the Vancouver Island Colony during the early part of decade and consequently a fair bit of money to drink away...

The Victoria Brewing Company

Created by Sarah Alford, Heather Fyfe, and Liam Haggarty

In the summer of 1982 the building that had been home to the Victoria Brewing Company was torn down almost exactly ninety years after it was built. The building had been a standing memory of Victoria's brewing industry, which began with the gold rush in 1858. This website explores the history of brewing in Victoria, from the gold rush up to the turn of the century.

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Architecture and Buildings

The Edges of Time: Cornerstones and Time Capsules of Early Victoria

Alyssum Nielsen, Sonya White, Tine Cruickshank, Sarah Bowen, and Alice Shether

Cornerstones and Time Capsules in Early Victoria allows us to remember the forgotten secrets and ceremonies of a coastal city. In showcasing the cornerstones of some of British Columbia’s earliest colonial structures, we ask what hides behind and beneath the promin"ent foundation of influence that we see reflected in each of the eight buildings featured here.

See also: Timeline of Victoria History

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Breweries

The Victoria Brewing Company

Created by Sarah Alford, Heather Fyfe, and Liam Haggarty

In the summer of 1982 the building that had been home to the Victoria Brewing Company was torn down almost exactly ninety years after it was built. The building had been a standing memory of Victoria's brewing industry, which began with the gold rush in 1858. This website explores the history of brewing in Victoria, from the gold rush up to the turn of the century.

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Business

Wharf Street, 1881

Created by Melissa Quantz

This examines the waterfront of Victoria in and around 1881 with special attention to the businesses, entrepreneurs and their establishments.

Reply of the Victoria, V.I. Chamber of Commerce to His Excellency Frederick Seymour, Governor of British Columbia 1866. [pertaining to Victoria's status as a free port].

Constitution and by-laws of the Chamber of Commerce of Victoria, Vancouver Island, 1872.

Edgar Fawcett, Some Recollections of Victoria...in the 1860s.

Lowe, Stahlschmidt & Co.'s General Merchant, price current [Catalogue and Price List], 1873.

See also:

* Breweries * Photography * Newspapers * Utilities

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Civic Organizations

See also:

 

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Crime

Race Class and Murder

Created by Justin Wong, Vesta and Dana Kimoto

This portion of Victoria's Victoria explores the varying degrees of racism in the handling of murders in Victoria during the 1860's. By using newspaper stories and other sources, this site focuses on three separate murders occurring in 1861, 1868, and 1869. The murders involve different races and different classes. We will examine the treatment of races in the presentation of murder in the media and also their treatment by the law.

Airing Victoria's Dirty Laundry

Created by William Akehurst, Vanessa Cervantes, Mike Crouch, Sanjiv Galhon, Tracy MacDonald, Tara Salter

In the 1880s and 1890s, Victoria had a flourishing red light district in which "ladies of questionable morals" plied their trade. This website examines prostitution as seen through two case studies of Belle Adams and Edna Farnsworth. Their respective experiences on Victoria's ‘mean streets" are examined against the framework of Victorian society's views on female sexuality and morality.

Judicial murder, Alfred Penderill Waddington, 1860 [protesting the hanging of an Aboriginal Man Allache]. Facimile from Rootsweb. Transcript from Who Killed William Robinson?

see also: Police

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Education

The Sisters of Saint Ann: The First Ten Years

Created by Diana Deardon, Leah Povey and Natalie Scholel.

Along with the 30,000 or so men that arrived in Victoria in 1858 en route to the gold fields were five women who had a different mission.  These four sisters of the religious order of the Sisters of St. Ann, and a lay helper, had answered the pre-gold rush call of Bishop Durieu to teach the children of Fort Victoria and the aboriginal children of the district.   But by the time they arrived the world of southern Vancouver Island had changed and they re-oriented their mission, establishing schools and other charitable institutions for the whole community.  This year marks the 150th anniversary of their arrival. 

Angela College, Victoria, Vancouver Island, for the eduction of young ladies 4 pages. (Victoria, B.C.? : s.n., 1869? )from Early Canadiana Online

Edward Mallandaine's School for Select Children, (founded 1858). Prospectus, 1860.

see also: Architecture and Buildings

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Farming

Craigflower Connections

Created by Taryn Jones, Scott murray and Dan Baart.

The site of Victoria was chosen for its supposed agricultural potential and the Hudson’s Bay Company and its subsidiary the Puget Sound Agricultural Company established farms that now partly define our municipal boundaries. Before the gold rush boom these were mini-communities unto themselves and incubators of the future settlement. This site focuses on one of those farm communities, the people who spread out from their, and their impact on Victoria.

Entertainment

The Theatre Royal in the 1860s

Created by Nancy Hintz and Jean Lomas

The Victoria Theatre, known as the Theatre Royal after 1867, was converted in 1861 by J.B. Robinson. It was located in an old Hudson's Bay Company storehouse on Government Street in downtown Victoria, which was situated at the southern tip of the then-British colony of Vancouver Island...

Colonial Cricket

Created by Sarah Pugh, Kathryn Gibbons and Chris Adams

Cricket, the noble game, the manly game, was brought to Victoria, by Vancouver Island's first settler, Captain William Colquhoun Grant in 1849. At least, that was when the first set of wickets and bats to be used on the island arrived...

Victoria’s Secret: Dance Halls of Early Victoria, 1859-1866

Created by Graham Caesar, Caitlin Ottenbreit and Shantel Keys.

Victoria was not always the genteel city it has become. In the tumultuous days around the gold rushes, prudish observers called it the Sodom of the Pacific. The 50,000 or so miners who passed through Victoria between 1858 and 1865 were looking for “entertainment” and they found much of it the “Dance Halls” that flourished in this brief period.

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Fire Department

Constitution and by-laws of the Tiger Engine Company, no. 2, of Victoria, V.I.

Tiger Engine Company, no. 2 (Victoria, B.C.), 1861.

Constitution and by-laws of Deluge Company No. 1, Victoria, Vancouver Island, 1863.

Regulations of the Victoria Fire Department, rules and orders of the Board of Delegates, and an act to extend and amend the provisions of the "Fireman's Protection Act, 1860"

Constitution, by-laws and rules of order of the Victoria Fire Department, Victoria, Vancouver Island, B.C., c1878.

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Gardening

Shaping Nature: The Pemberton Family's Construction of Victoria's Landscape

Created by Benjamin Beresford, Eryk Martin, Laura Ishiguro, Eddie Roberts

Explores the history of J. D. Pemberton - Colonial Surveyor in early Victoria - and his family, and the ways in which they shaped Victoria's landscape. It examines both his public (the surveying and mapping) and private (the gardening and landscaping) shaping of Victoria and Oak Bay

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Lighting

Victoria Gas Company: Its Beginnings (1859-1862)

Created by Daniel Reid

The Victoria Gas Company was Vancouver Island's first utility company and is a predecessor to B.C. Hydro. The company was founded by young entrepreneurs who raised capital through the sale of stocks, another first in the colony. This site examines some of the controversies surrounding the Company through the lens of nineteenth century newspapers. Inside you will find the world's largest repository of digital images pertaining to the Victoria Gas Company.

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Masons and Masonic Lodges

The Freemasons of Victoria

Created by Stephanie Chan, Joelle Hodgins, Kirin McKee and Chris Perry

Over 700 years old since the  founding of the Order, the Victoria Freemasons are celebtrating 150 years of Lodge activity in Victoria and British Columbia.  This fraternal, secret order, provides a social space for men who believe in a supreme being, to meet and network and learn about the history and traditions of this ancient order.  When it was founded it was a rare place for Jews and Christians, rich and poor, local and visitor to mingle.  The connections of the Lodge were a great help in the wider society as most of the early politicians, business and community leaders were members of the lodge.  This site explores the impact of the Freemason in early Victoria.

By-laws of the British Columbia Lodge, No. 5: register Grand Lodge of British Columbia.

Order of proceedings at the dedication of the new masonic hall, Victoria, V.I., Monday, 25th June, 1866

Oration delivered at the inauguration of the new masonic hall, on Government Street, Victoria, Vancouver Island, on Monday, 25th June, 1866.

Proceedings of the Provincial Grand Lodge of British Columbia, A.F. & A.M., R.S., at the second annual communication held at the city of Victoria, May 1st, 1869.

see also: Architecture and Buildings

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Morality

Airing Victoria's Dirty Laundry

Created by William Akehurst, Vanessa Cervantes, Mike Crouch, Sanjiv Galhon, Tracy MacDonald, Tara Salter

In the 1880s and 1890s, Victoria had a flourishing red light district in which "ladies of questionable morals" plied their trade. This website examines prostitution as seen through two case studies of Belle Adams and Edna Farnsworth. Their respective experiences on Victoria's ‘mean streets" are examined against the framework of Victorian society's views on female sexuality and morality.

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Medicine

Medicine in 1860s Victoria

Created by David Badke

In the 1860s, Victoria had doctors, dentists and pharmacists offering their services and ready to prescribe all manner of medicines. This part of the Victoria's Victoria site explores the practice of medicine in Victoria in the 1860s...

The Spirit of Pestilence

Created by Elaine Moore, Anna-Marie Krahn, and Claudia Lorenz

In March of 1862, a miner brought smallpox from San Francisco to Victoria, British Columbia. The disease spread quickly, especially among Native people. The government of the day soon forced Natives to leave the city, which caused the disease to spread throughout many parts of British Columbia...

Female Infirmary for the Sick and Destitute of all Denominations: [report 1864-1865][report 1865-66].(Victoria, B.C.) 3 pages. (Victoria, B.C.? : s.n., 1866? ) from Early Canadiana Online.

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Newspapers

The First Newspapers on Canada's West Coast: 1858-1863

Created by Hugh Doherty.

Victoria had no fewer than nine newspapers between the summer of 1858 and 1863, all except the British Colonist, short-lived but lively all the same. This website gives a history of each of these newspapers and the colourful people behind them.

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Orphans

Philanthropists, child saviours and the founding of the B.C. Protestant Orphans Home

Created by Sean Pollit, Anne Wicks, Cassandra Morton, and Caroline Duncan

While Charles Dickens was writing about orphanages and poor houses in Victorian England, Victorian Victoria was coming to terms with the same social problems: the Protestant Orphan’s Home was one local solution. What is now the Bishop Cridge Centre with childcare, eldercare a school and family support, started out as a place for unwanted children. Or were they unwanted? Investigating the lives of the ‘orphans’, their families and the philanthropists behind the orphanage shows many families desperately coping with poverty and loss of a parent and the orphanage was a last resort to care for their own children.

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Philanthropy

See: Orphans

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Physicians

Medicine in 1860s Victoria

Created by David Badke

In the 1860s, Victoria had doctors, dentists and pharmacists offering their services and ready to prescribe all manner of medicines. This part of the Victoria's Victoria site explores the practice of medicine in Victoria in the 1860s...

The Spirit of Pestilence

Created by Elaine Moore, Anna-Marie Krahn, and Claudia Lorenz

In March of 1862, a miner brought smallpox from San Francisco to Victoria, British Columbia. The disease spread quickly, especially among Native people. The government of the day soon forced Natives to leave the city, which caused the disease to spread throughout many parts of British Columbia...

Female Infirmary for the Sick and Destitute of all Denominations: [report 1864-1865][report 1865-66].(Victoria, B.C.) 3 pages. (Victoria, B.C.? : s.n., 1866? ) from Early Canadiana Online.

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Photography

Maynard's Photography Gallery

Created by Leslie Robertson

Arriving in 1862 the Maynard's quickly established themselves as leading entrepreneurs in Victoria and used their photographs to help promote Victoria, British Columbia, and Canada across the globe. This site attempts to examine the establishment and operation of their business and how it contributed to the development of the region.

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Places of Worship

St. Andrew's Church in the Heart of Victoria's Victoria

Created by Jim Kempling, Alison Lindsay, Kim Madsen, and Andrew Reid.

Many of the early immigrants to Victoria were from Scotland and they drew on the church of their homeland - The Presbyterian Church of Scotland - to create foundation for a spiritual home in their new city.   St. Andrew's was built in the heard of the city but its membership extended to include the Province's richest man, Robert Dunsmuir, its most prominent journalist/politicians Amor de Cosmos and John Robson, and many other of the city's elite.  This website looks at the role of the church in the city and the impact of its wealthy membership on the community.

The Sisters of Saint Ann: The First Ten Years

Created by Diana Deardon, Leah Povey and Natalie Scholel.

Along with the 30,000 or so men that arrived in Victoria in 1858 en route to the gold fields were five women who had a different mission.  These four sisters of the religious order of the Sisters of St. Ann, and a lay helper, had answered the pre-gold rush call of Bishop Durieu to teach the children of Fort Victoria and the aboriginal children of the district.   But by the time they arrived the world of southern Vancouver Island had changed and they re-oriented their mission, establishing schools and other charitable institutions for the whole community.  This year marks the 150th anniversary of their arrival. 

Lent Program, 1868 St. John's Church, Victoria, B.C.1868.

see also: Architecture and Buildings

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Politics

Henri Gustave Joly de Lotbinière BC's French Canadian Lieutenant Governor

Created by Jeremy, Tamara and Callie

It is hard to imagine a more anglophone city than Victoria and an anglo-phile province than British Columbia in 1900.  It is also hard to conjure up the chaos of provincial politics of that time: no political parties, governments  lasting only slightly more than a year on average, and the Lieutenant Governor regularly dissolving governements and choosing new ones.   Enter Henri Gustave Joly de Lotbinière,  a French born, Quebecer, appointed to be her majesty's representative in Canada's most westerly province.   Was this a master stroke of diplomacy or political blunder of monumental proportions?

Resolutions passed at a public meeting held at Victoria, British Columbia, Nov. 28, 1867 [pertaining to the selection of the capital city].

Proceedings of a public meeting, held Thursday evening, 28th Nov., 1867, at Victoria, British Columbia, 1867 [pertaining to the selection of the capital city].

Reply of the Victoria, V.I. Chamber of Commerce to His Excellency Frederick Seymour, Governor of British Columbia. [pertaining to Victoria's status as a free port], 1866.

Declaration, constitution, list of officers of the Confederate League, Confederate League (Victoria, B.C.), 1868.

See also: Mayors of Victoria

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Police

Racist Indignation and Colonized Peoples: A Microhistorical Analysis of Crime and Racism in the Colony of Vancouver Island in the mid 1800s

Created by Vanessa Boudreau, Mark Devoe, Mike St. Claire and Martin Emslie

On June 2, 1859, Colonial Police Officer Johnston Cochrane was shot and killed by an unknown assailant whilst in the line of duty. By examining various primary documents from 1859, this website explores the subsequent trials in regards to the slaying of the Officer, as well as the racial tension that was not only in existence in the Colony of Vancouver Island during this period, but was thriving.

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Prostitution

Airing Victoria's Dirty Laundry

Created by William Akehurst, Vanessa Cervantes, Mike Crouch, Sanjiv Galhon, Tracy MacDonald, Tara Salter

In the 1880s and 1890s, Victoria had a flourishing red light district in which "ladies of questionable morals" plied their trade. This website examines prostitution as seen through two case studies of Belle Adams and Edna Farnsworth. Their respective experiences on Victoria's ‘mean streets" are examined against the framework of Victorian society's views on female sexuality and morality.

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Queen Victoria

Victoria is Dead!

Created by Melissa Quantz, Jassi Shonki, and Angela Oh

The main objective of the site is to examine how Queen Victoria's death was viewed through the eyes of the citizens of Victoria. The sympathy expressed by the city is an example of Victoria's loyalty to the British Monarch...

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Race

Chinatown, 1885

Created by Chris Dykstra, Andrea Suttie, Jowett Yu, Colin Bailey, Devon Carter, Erin Kelly.

A snapshot representation of Chinatown in and around 1885 displaying the relationship between Victoria's Chinatown and the larger imperial experience.

Race Class and Murder

Created by Justin Wong, Vesta and Dana Kimoto

This portion of Victoria's Victoria explores the varying degrees of racism in the handling of murders in Victoria during the 1860's. By using newspaper stories and other sources, this site focuses on three separate murders occurring in 1861, 1868, and 1869. The murders involve different races and different classes. We will examine the treatment of races in the presentation of murder in the media and also their treatment by the law.

The Spirit of Pestilence

Created by Elaine Moore, Anna-Marie Krahn, and Claudia Lorenz

In March of 1862, a miner brought smallpox from San Francisco to Victoria, British Columbia. The disease spread quickly, especially among Native people. The government of the day soon forced Natives to leave the city, which caused the disease to spread throughout many parts of British Columbia...

see also: Police

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Saloons

Spirits in Victoria

Created by Steven Robinson

The sale of "spirituous liquors" became a huge business in Victoria throughout the 1860's. There was a large amount of money in the Vancouver Island Colony during the early part of decade and consequently a fair bit of money to drink away...

The Victoria Brewing Company

Created by Sarah Alford, Heather Fyfe, and Liam Haggarty

In the summer of 1982 the building that had been home to the Victoria Brewing Company was torn down almost exactly ninety years after it was built. The building had been a standing memory of Victoria's brewing industry, which began with the gold rush in 1858. This website explores the history of brewing in Victoria, from the gold rush up to the turn of the century.

top

Sickness

Medicine in 1860s Victoria

Created by David Badke

In the 1860s, Victoria had doctors, dentists and pharmacists offering their services and ready to prescribe all manner of medicines. This part of the Victoria's Victoria site explores the practice of medicine in Victoria in the 1860s...

The Spirit of Pestilence

Created by Elaine Moore, Anna-Marie Krahn, and Claudia Lorenz

In March of 1862, a miner brought smallpox from San Francisco to Victoria, British Columbia. The disease spread quickly, especially among Native people. The government of the day soon forced Natives to leave the city, which caused the disease to spread throughout many parts of British Columbia...

Female Infirmary for the Sick and Destitute of all Denominations: [report 1864-1865][report 1865-66].(Victoria, B.C.) 3 pages. (Victoria, B.C.? : s.n., 1866? ) from Early Canadiana Online.

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Sport

Colonial Cricket

Created by Sarah Pugh, Kathryn Gibbons and Chris Adams

Cricket, the noble game, the manly game, was brought to Victoria, by Vancouver Island's first settler, Captain William Colquhoun Grant in 1849. At least, that was when the first set of wickets and bats to be used on the island arrived...

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Surveying

Shaping Nature: The Pemberton Family's Construction of Victoria's Landscape

Created by Benjamin Beresford, Eryk Martin, Laura Ishiguro, Eddie Roberts

Explores the history of J. D. Pemberton - Colonial Surveyor in early Victoria - and his family, and the ways in which they shaped Victoria's landscape. It examines both his public (the surveying and mapping) and private (the gardening and landscaping) shaping of Victoria and Oak Bay

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Theatres

The Theatre Royal in the 1860s

Created by Nancy Hintz and Jean Lomas

The Victoria Theatre, known as the Theatre Royal after 1867, was converted in 1861 by J.B. Robinson. It was located in an old Hudson's Bay Company storehouse on Government Street in downtown Victoria, which was situated at the southern tip of the then-British colony of Vancouver Island...

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Transportation

Cycle Babble:  Cycling in 19th Century Victoria

Created by Jason Chisholm,Vincent Gornall and Gavin Neil

There is a way in which we owe the modern world to the bicycle craze of the 1890s.  The bicycle as we know it was invented in the 1880s and by the 1890s it took North America, including Victoria by storm.  Victorians seized upon the speed, mobility, freedom and healthy qualities of the bicycle in great numbers, creating cycle clubs, lobbying to improve roads and have bicylce paths.  It sped up the circulation of goods and people, it helped free women from confining Victorian fashions and people from the travel limitions of their own feet. Through to the nineteen teens when the automobile age grew out of the bicycle era and began to steal the thunder from bicycles, it was the major mode of  private transportation in the city.  

A View of Victoria: Riding the Trolley through downtown in 1907

Created by Oriane Fort and Meleisa Ono George

H.G. Wells conjured up a time machine for his fiction but here we have the closest thing to the reality of time travel.   Lost for  most of a century, found in an Australian archive and now available on the web for the first time, a video of Victoria taken 101 years ago, from the front of a city streetcar.   Take a ride on a Victoria streetcar and see the city, the people, the horses, bikes and (hardly any) cars of 1907.

BC Electric Railway Company, 1901

Created by Chris Bowes and Jolene Coe. 

Chris and Jolene have mapped the route of the streetcar system in 1901 and have identified BCER employees and where they lived.

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Utilities

Victoria Gas Company: Its Beginnings (1859-1862)

Created by Daniel Reid

The Victoria Gas Company was Vancouver Island's first utility company and is a predecessor to B.C. Hydro. The company was founded by young entrepreneurs who raised capital through the sale of stocks, another first in the colony. This site examines some of the controversies surrounding the Company through the lens of nineteenth century newspapers. Inside you will find the world's largest repository of digital images pertaining to the Victoria Gas Company.

Victoria water supply : report by Thomas A Bulkley, 1872.

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