March 2017
Next Tuesday, March 28, I am giving a talk about prohibition, sponsored by the Vancouver Heritage Foundation. Details are here.
You'll note that the event takes place at Hycroft, a fabulous mansion completed in 1911...
I recently prepared a short entry for the Canadian Encyclopedia about the Last Spike and I realized once again how important a single nine-day stretch in November 1885 was in the history of the country.
As you know, the Last Spike marked the conclusion of the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway. The company held a modest ceremony at Eagle Pass not far from Revelstoke in the British...
The Vancouver Park Board has voted to stop displaying live cetaceans at the Vancouver Aquarium in Stanley Park, a real turning point in the history of the city.
Cetaceans have been part of the Aquarium...
The shortlist for the BC Book Prizes is out (see it here) and it highlights some pretty interesting history that was published in the province last year.
The list includes Gently to Nagasaki, Joy Kogawa's meditation on historical atrocity; Mark Leiren-Young's account of Moby Doll, The Killer Whale Who Changed the World; a history of the Gitxsan people, Mapping My Way Home, by longtime tribal leader Neil...
I have a couple of websites to recommend.
Lana Okerlund is a Vancouver book editor, writer and history buff who has begun blogging on the history of bookselling in BC at "A Most Agreeable Place." Apparently she set out to answer the question "What was the first bookseller in Vancouver?" and the result became this blog. (The answer to the question, by the way, is Seth Thorne Tilley who provided the pen, ink and paper for the city's first...