BC Historical Books

Featured Collection

Volume I
Laying the Foundations
1849 – 1899

Volume II
Navigation, Traffiques & Discoveries
1774 – 1848

Volume III
Years of Growth
1900 – 1950

BC Historical Books combines the traditional tools of bibliography with the new tools of the digital world to transform our understanding of, and insight into, the history and life of British Columbia.

Bibliography is the science of describing published works, and the bibliography of British Columbia is located in traditional printed bibliographies. The goal of the BC Historical Books project is to build a single searchable database of the bibliography of British Columbia based on full-text searchable versions of the books contained therein. The result will allow scholars, students and the public unparalleled access to knowledge about our province.

The three bibliographies of British Columbia, published by the Social Sciences Research Center at the University of Victoria (B.C.) between the late 1960's and mid-1970's, provide the foundation for this project:

Volume I: Lowther, Barbara Joan Sonia Horsfield, Muriel Laing, and University of Victoria (B.C.). Social Sciences Research Center. A Bibliography of British Columbia; Laying the Foundations, 1849-1899,. Victoria, B.C.: [U of Victoria], 1968.
Volume II: Strathern, Gloria M., Margaret H. Edwards, and University of Victoria (B.C.). Social Sciences Research Centre. Navigations, Traffiques & Discoveries, 1774-1848; a Guide to Publications Relating to the Area Now British Columbia. Victoria, B.C.: Social Sciences Research Centre, 1970.
Volume III: Edwards, Margaret H., John C. R. Lort, and Wendy J. Carmichael. A Bibliography of British Columbia: Years of Growth 1900-1950. Victoria, B.C.: Social Sciences Research Centre, U of Victoria, 1975.

A related collection, the Northern BC Digital Collection, is available courtesy of the University of Northern British Columbia Geoffrey R. Weller Library .

The 160 works which seeded this digital collection were contributed by:

The University of British Columbia Library continues to add to the project from its Rare Books & Special Collections holdings, with the collection featuring almost 1700 items as of August 2017.

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