36 replies to this topic

[aastra]

Every place was destined to overshadow Victoria. Victoria exists merely to be overshadowed.

Victoria has no intrinsic potential. Eventually this entire farce that we call a city will come crashing down. You just wait. Any day now.

[aastra]

Have we all seen this? Many terrific pictures:

http://www.victoriah...idehistory.html

[pseudotsuga]

^ I haven't. Very nice - thanks!

[aastra]

The problem with moving posts to other threads is that you need to move the replies to the posts, too, or else everything gets broken up.

[G-Man]

Whoops.

[Holden West]

Victoria city directories from 1860 to 1901 are online.

[Marilyn]

Janis Ringuette is my favourite Victoria historian.

Here's her detailed history of Beacon Hill Park, Holland Point, Clover Point etc.
http://www.beaconhillparkhistory.org/

[Ms. B. Havin]

The Provincial Capital Commission must have partnered with BC Open School or something - at any rate, PCC offers an interesting-looking site, Being Victorian, which can be used by BC schoolkids to fulfill social studies requirements. The Resources page takes you to archive links, etc. It's quite good, this site.

[collywobbles]

Pretty interesting new local history website launched today by a fourth-year UVic history class, focused on Victoria during the reign of Queen Victoria: http://www.victoriasvictoria.ca

[Caramia]

Fantastic find Collywobbles!!

I found the information on Victoria as a free port to be fascinating. Sometimes my dad when he's had a few glasses of wine, talks about how Victoria should declare itself once again a free port. I never knew what he was talking about. But here's this document from the Chamber of Commerce in 1866 explaining the benefits that have come from from the free port status! According to this report, it was the free port status that helped Victoria beat out New Westminster as the center of civilization in the wild wild British northwest. I feel like I just got a joke that's been going over my head for 30 years.

[Caramia]

And this:

Then Queen Victoria was enthroned in 1837, what is now the city of Victoria was the home of the Lekwammen people. In 1843 the Hudson's Bay Company, a fur trading company based in London England, established a post here. Initially it was intended to call the post by a local name for the harbour and the long, finger-like inlet whose narrows were the site of a Lekwammen transform site, Camosack or Camosun. Soon it was decided that it should honour the young Queen's husband and consort, and for a short time became Fort Albert. When it became clear that post would be the headquarters for the Hudson's Bay Company west of the Rocky Mountains, and destined to be the seat of a new British colony, it was decided that no less a name could be attached than that of the Queen herself.

We could have been Albertans.
That would have been confusing.

[Rob Randall]

Britishcolonist.ca has just released their archives to the year 1970! This means every issue of the Victoria Colonist newspaper is searchable up to that date.

 

This gets quite interesting as we are now dealing with more recent news, for example I was able to embarrass some older folks over the weekend with reports of previous traffic incidents, since back in that day every violation was noted in the paper along with the perp's address.

[Rob Randall]

If you are feeling nostalgic for the K-Mart at University Heights (and I know you are) here are several hours of in-house PA system audio:

 

https://archive.org/...onkmartshoppers

[G-Man]

Holy crap! Just when you think the internet is just full of stuff you don't need someone points you to a true piece of beauty. This is amazing. I have been listening to a few of these as I plug away tonight and it has been awesome! True zen from KMart. 

[Rob Randall]

Make sure you listen to the announcements between songs for deals on summer swimwear and cotton-blend slacks. It takes you back, doesn't it? You can practically see the dented beige shelving, the linoleum flooring that's dirty in the corners where the floor polisher doesn't reach and the aroma of apple pie with a slice of cheese and drip coffee from the coffee shop.

[Bingo]

Make sure you listen to the announcements between songs for deals on summer swimwear and cotton-blend slacks. It takes you back, doesn't it? You can practically see the dented beige shelving, the linoleum flooring that's dirty in the corners where the floor polisher doesn't reach and the aroma of apple pie with a slice of cheese and drip coffee from the coffee shop.

 

...and the unshaded fluorescent lighting tubes that sent me to the exit after ten minutes.

[AllseeingEye]

Love the K-mart link; thanks for the trip down memory lane Rob.....

 

On a slightly more serious note, in the 1980's at UVic I had the great pleasure of studying under Dr RH Roy, one of Canada's foremost military and strategic studies professors. As did several others at the time, including one Mark Hill co-founder later of a little known company called WestJet, select students including yours truly had the privilege of contributing to a multi-year project, starting in the late 70s's, that consisted of taped interviews with Canadian War veterans from WWI, WWII and Korea. That project continued until roughly 2000, long after we graduated naturally. 

 

The objective, as Reg saw it, was to get the thoughts and commentaries of these special men and women on tape while they were still living. Himself a decorated WWII veteran, the project was funded by DND and was near and dear to Dr Roy's heart. I spent a year during my undergrad working part time as did the other students contacting and interviewing these incredible people. That history - their history- archive is online and the original interviews of course long since digitized:

 

https://uvic2.coppul...tory-collection