Research Reflections
At first thought, the conceptual relevancies and links between time, buried objects, and ceremonial stones might seem obscure. The research for “Edges of Time: Cornerstones and Time Capsules of Early Victoria” has served to identify, strengthen, and explain such links. Using a microhistorical focus to analyze a specific set of ceremonies and actions, this website allows its audience to ask bigger questions about the lives of Victoria residents in the Victorian time period. Newspapers, images, scrapbooks, archival materials, books, and community interactions have enabled the synthesis and presentation of information on this website.Below are some conclusions and synthetic thoughts on the significance and function of cornerstones and time capsules. It is the hope of the authors that people who engage with this website will reflect on the synthetic ideas, consider the information available, access other resources as they are found, and come to their own conclusions about the Edges of Time. One of the most compelling reasons for initiating this research was the awareness that similar ceremonies were carried out across British Columbia as colonization penetrated the interior of British Columbia. The “Resources” page may serve as a starting-off point for independent research interests that this website motivates.
The laying of the cornerstone was a physical act, but it represented an ideological faith in the merits and necessity of upright, linear progress. This ideological faith in progress was, in turn, directly linked to religious beliefs in God, Jesus Christ, and honourable Christian conduct. Spiritual figures were referenced directly in the ceremonies featured on this website: God was stated as the “Great Architect of the Universe” when the Masonic fraternity gathered to lay their cornerstone, Jesus Christ was declared as the “Chief Corner Stone” at the Y.M.C.A. ceremony, and a Jewish citizen prayed to God that he might “...infuse a feeling of peace and harmony in the hearts of my brethren.” A collection was taken at the Masonic ceremony, and deposited on top of the cornerstone “...to be applied for the benefit of the needy.” Colonization, industrialization, and municipal growth reinforced the strength and legitimacy of introduced religious faith and appropriated British custom in British Columbia. The celebration of cornerstones was, undoubtedly, seen as a triumph of colonial success in a harsh and uncompromising landscape.
Time capsules, referred to in Victorian times as “votive deposits” or “the usual deposits” when placed behind or beneath cornerstones, allow for a discussion of identity and representation as they related to colonial growth in Victoria. Wealth and title were strong themes in Victorian Victoria. The type of coinage deposited was suggestive of State influence on the development of fraternal organizations: the Odd Fellows deposited coinage from Canada, Britain, and America, as incorporation of Victoria's lodges first occurred under the Grand Lodge of California. The names of people mentioned in the documents that were deposited characterize those citizens who were most successful in the acquisition of wealth and title. Membership in fraternal organizations had a strong business benefit, as did public affiliation with religious institutions. There is little mention of women in the items that were deposited, nor is there any mention of indigenous peoples or those who laboured in the construction of the buildings. Thus, Victorian time capsules allow for only limited interpretation of community demographics. They do, however, let us understand how people perceived themselves and those around them.