The British Columbia Provincial Archives are located in

Victoria, British Columbia Victoria is the capital city of the Canadian province of British Columbia, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of 91,867, and the Greater Victoria area has a population of 397,237. Th ...

, Canada. The BC Archives merged with the

Royal BC Museum Founded in 1886, the Royal British Columbia Museum (sometimes referred to as Royal BC Museum) consists of The Province of British Columbia's natural and human history museum as well as the British Columbia Provincial Archives. The museum is loca ...

in 2003. The BC Archives contain the archives of the British Columbia government, and are valuable for both research and preservation activities. The BC archives have been archiving significant artifacts, documents, and records since 1894, including private historical manuscripts, maps, and government records. There is also a research library in the archives. Of note, the BC Archives website contains research guides to assist those interested in the material they house.

Holdings

The BC Archives house the

Douglas Treaties The Douglas Treaties, also known as the Vancouver Island Treaties or the Fort Victoria Treaties, were a series of treaties signed between certain indigenous groups on Vancouver Island and the Colony of Vancouver Island. Background With the signin ...

(1850-1854), the treaties signed between certain First Nations groups and the Colony of Vancouver Island in the nineteenth century. The archives also preserve BC Provincial Police correspondence records, Executive council of BC records, documentation of the dispersal of Crown Land in British Columbia 1874-1944, the Premier's Papers, and the James Douglas Papers. Furthermore, the BC Archives contain documents concerning prominent Canadian persons including

Nellie McClung Nellie Letitia McClung (; 20 October 18731 September 1951) was a Canadian author, politician, and social activist, who is regarded as one of Canada's most prominent suffragists. She began her career in writing with the 1908 book ''Sowing Seeds ...

, JS Helmcken, and

Emily Carr Emily Carr (or M. Emily Carr as she sometimes signed her work) (December 13, 1871 – March 2, 1945) was a Canadian artist and writer who was inspired by the Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast. One of the painters in Canada to ado ...

. Also included in the archives are papers concerning the Trutch family,

Ida Halpern Ida Halpern (née Ruhdörfer; July 17, 1910 – February 7, 1987) was a Canadian ethnomusicologist. Halpern was born in Vienna, Austria. She arrived in Canada in order to flee Nazism in her native country, becoming a Canadian citizen in 194 ...

Clement Francis Cornwall Clement Francis Cornwall (June 18, 1836 – February 15, 1910) was a Canadian parliamentarian and the third Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia. Cornwall was born at Ashcroft House, in Newington Bagpath, near Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucester ...

, and BC premiers Dave Barrett and

Thomas Dufferin Pattullo Thomas Dufferin "Duff" Pattullo (January 19, 1873 – March 30, 1956) was the 22nd premier of British Columbia from 1933 to 1941. Early life and early political career Born in Woodstock, Ontario, into a family of Scottish ancestry, Pattullo ...

Sisters of St. Ann Archives

In the spring of 2012, the

Sisters of St. Ann The Sisters of St. Anne (S.S.A.) is a Roman Catholic religious institute, founded in 1850 in Vaudreuil, Quebec, Canada, by the Blessed Marie Anne Blondin, S.S.A., to promote the education of the rural children of the Province of Canada. Their vi ...

announced the decision to place their collection of historical and religious artifacts and documents under the stewardship of the Royal BC Museum. Their collection dates back to 1858, and includes over 100 000 photographs, 500 pieces of art, and 1 000 000 archival records. Since the mid-nineteenth century, The Sisters of St. Ann have opened thirteen schools, nine hospitals, numerous parochial schools, and one nursing school in BC, the Yukon, and Alaska. Among other significant artifacts, their collection includes large hand-carved rosaries worn by the Sisters, liturgical objects used during mass, vintage textiles, and historic letters.

Pemberton Holmes Business Archives

In the autumn of 2012, long time Victoria real estate company Pemberton Holmes donated their business archives to the BC archives for preservation and stewardship. Pemberton Holmes was founded in 1887 by

Joseph Despard Pemberton Joseph Despard Pemberton (July 23, 1821 – November 11, 1893) was a surveyor for the Hudson's Bay Company, Surveyor General for the Colony of Vancouver Island, a pre-Confederation politician, a businessman and a farmer. He was born in 1821 i ...

, the first colonial land surveyor in Victoria, and his son Frederick Barnard Pemberton. The donated archives date from the 1880s and include thousands of documents that serve as historical sources about the early development of BC and Victoria. The collection comprises more than 2400 individual client dockets or files containing business transactions and correspondences; 300 photographs; 40 maps and plans; 180 bound volumes of correspondence; original watercolour architectural drawings for commercial buildings in Victoria's Old Town; and other historic real estate memorabilia.

Archivists

The position of Provincial Archivist was created in 1908, and dissolved in 2014.

Former Provincial Archivists

*1908–1909 R.E. Gosnell *1910–1919 Ethelbert O.S. Scholefield *1920-1925 John Forsyth *1926-1934 John Hosie *1934-1940

William Kaye Lamb William Kaye Lamb (May 11, 1904 – August 24, 1999) was a Canadian historian, archivist, librarian, and civil servant. Career Born in New Westminster, British Columbia, Lamb received his BA in 1927 and MA in 1930 from the University of Bri ...

*1940-1970 Willard Ireland *1974-1979 Allan R. Turner *1979-1998 John A. Bovey *1998-2014 Gary A. Mitchell

References

{{Authority control Archives in Canada Organizations based in British Columbia