BC Historical Documents

Archives are places of unlimited discovery, where visitors cultivate a richer, deeper sense of the world as it was in the past. The historical records and manuscripts found in archives shine a light on the past and document society’s events, attitudes, and stories. As evidence of past actions and attitudes, archival materials are valuable for ensuring rights and justice, interpreting history, and forming cultural memory. In archives a vast array of unique, primary source material detailing the complexity of history’s individuals and societies awaits discovery by researchers.

The University of British Columbia Library’s Rare Books and Special Collections houses the Library’s rarest and most valuable collections, and has an abundance of original documents related to the development of British Columbia and its Columbia’s economic, social, political, and cultural history. These documents offer researchers incredible insights into our shared history.

BC Historical Documents is a collection of important materials related to the forestry, fishing, and mining industries in British Columbia, education development in the province, and British Columbia’s early history. These materials from Rare Books and Special Collections and UBC’s Education Library offer researchers incredible insights into our shared history.

Selected items from the following archival fonds and collections are represented here, including:

Columbia (Ship) fonds

Henry Doyle fonds

Hastings Saw Mill Company fonds

John Keenlyside Legal Research Collection

B.C. Provincial Police Port Essington Office fonds

R.L. Reid fonds

Charles Semlin fonds

G. Vernon Wellburn British Columbia History Collection

Education Library Historical Textbooks