The British Columbia History Internet/Web Site

Exhibitions Online

To search for new or updated content, use the page-search function of your Web browser and search on "date added" or "date updated". Dates are entered as "yyyy.mm.dd", for example, "1995-2003.08.23".

Directories, Guides and Search Engines

• Library and Archival Exhibitions on the Web: A Project of the Smithsonian Institution Libraries (Compiled by Diane Shaw).
• Virtual Archival Exhibits from Around British Columbia (Archives Association of British Columbia).
• Virtual Museum Canada contains links to other Canadian museums along with exhibits containing British Columbia content, some of which are indexed on this page.

The Exhibits

• The American Memory digital collections project at the Library of Congress (site-search available) and Exhibitions at the Library of Congress contain much content relevant to British Columbia.
• Architectural Walking Tours (Architectural Institute of British Columbia) covers selected areas of Vancouver and Victoria.
• Artifacts B.C. (BC Heritage and Canada's Digital Collections)
• Arts and Society (Maltwood Art Museum and Gallery). Examines the influence of the arts on various aspects of society. Includes BC content preserved by the Maltwood.
• British Columbia Archives Amazing Time Machine (Canada's Digital Collections) brings to life archival treasures for educational use.
• Canada and the First World War (National Archives of Canada)
• Canada at Scale: Maps of Our History (National Archives of Canada) looks at Canada through cartographic records
• Canadian Confederation by the National Library of Canada explores the evolution of Canada and the influence of the United States Civil War.
• Canadian Private Presses (National Library of Canada). Barbarian Press is one of the seven highlighted presses and is based in Mission, BC. Date added: 2002-04-30.
• Canadian War Artists (National Archives of Canada)
• The Canadian West Virtual Exhibition: A Gateway Through Time (National Archives of Canada). Date added: 2002.01.08.
• The Cariboo Gold Rush (BC Heritage and Canada's Digital Collections)
• Celebrating Women's Achievements (National Library of Canada)
• Critical Acclaim: Portraits from the National Archives of Canada
• Cultivating Canadian Gardens: The History of Gardening in Canada (National Library of Canada)
• "Drawing Shadows to Stone": Photographing North Pacific Peoples (1897-1902) (American Museum of Natural History) is about the Jesup North Pacific Expedition
• The Education of Filbert Phelps: Cartoons by Len Norris (Electronic Document Centre, Simon Fraser University Library). Virtual version of an exhibit of 22 cartoons illustrating the growth of this Vancouver Sun editorial cartoonist's most endearing creation, Filbert Phelps.
• Emergence from the Shadow: First Peoples' Photographic Perspectives (Canadian Museum of Civilization) features historic photographers of First Peoples (Natives) and contemporary photographers of Native ancestry.
• The Emergence of Advertising in America, 1850-1920 (John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History, Duke University). Over 9,000 digital images of advertising publications and ephemera documenting the early history of consumerism in the US. Many of these same products were available in Canada.
• Emily Carr At Home and At Work: A Compendium of the Life and Work of Emily Carr, Canadian Artist and Author (Carr House, Government St., Victoria, BC Heritage Branch, Province of BC, and Canada's Digital Collections)
• Every Name Tells a Story: 100 Years of Official Place Naming in Canada (Canada Permanent Committee on Geographical Names Centennial Exhibit)
• Exploring the West from Monticello: A Perspective in Maps from Columbus to Lewis and Clark (University of Virginia Library).
• First Among Equals, 1867-1994: Canada's Prime Ministers (National Archives of Canada)
• Gifting and Feasting in the Northwest Coast Potlatch (Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University)
• GIS, Archives, & Historical Demography or, Maps, Manuscripts and MultiMedia: An Interactive View of Nanaimo in the 1890s by Dr. Patrick A. Dunae and Mary O'Neill, Malaspina University-College. This interactive project demonstrates enrichment of history through digital multimedia applications.
• The Gold Rush Town of Yale (BC Heritage Branch, Province of BC, and Canada's Digital Collections)
• Golden Dreams: The Quest for the Klondike (Washington State Historical Society)
• The Great Depression: A Project on the Hungry Decade of Change (Class 11M, Point Grey Mini School, Vancouver, BC, for Heritage Post Interactive)
• Heroes of Lore and Yore: Canadian Heroes in Fact and Fiction (National Library of Canada). Among the heroes associated with BC are Terry Fox, the Sasquatch, Sir Sandford Fleming, and Sir Alexander Mackenzie.
• History of Richmond Municipality by Mary Thompson (City of Richmond Archives, BC). One-page introduction to a handwritten booklet of Richmond's history produced as a school project. The main feature of the exhibit is a complete digital facsimile with illustrations and transcriptions.
• Hudson's Bay Company at Fort Victoria (Canada's Digital Collections)
• Hudson's Bay Company Digital Collection (Manitoba Museum of Man and Nature and Canada's Digital Collections)
• Impressions: 250 Years of Printing in the Lives of Canadians (National Library of Canada)
• Indianer Nordamerikas (North American Indians, Museum für Völkerkunde / Museum of Ethnology, Berlin, Germany)
• The Last Best West: Advertising for Immigrants to Western Canada, 1870-1930 by Jean Bruce (Canadian Museum of Civilization)
• Living Memory (National Archives of Canada) is based the rotating exhibit Treasured Memories which opened in 1997 at 395 Wellington St., Ottawa, ON.
• Louis Agassiz Fuertes and the Harriman Alaska Expedition (Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library)
• North, South, East, West: American Indians and the Natural World (Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh, PA). The North part of the exhibit is titled The Tlingit of the Northwest Coast.
• On the Job: A Century of Canadians At Work (National Archives of Canada).
• Onderdonk's Way by the Kamloops Art Gallery, Roger H. Boulet, Adjunct Curator, "features the archival photographs documenting ... the building of a railway from Port Moody to Craigellachie", BC, by contractor Andrew Onderdonk.
• Pacific Explorations Site (University of British Columbia Library) is the library's first contribution to the Pacific Explorations Archive, a project of the Pacific Rim Digital Library Alliance of which UBC Library is a founding member. The site contains links to titles from the Early Canadiana Online collection. Date added: 2002.05.19.
• Passages: A Treasure Trove of North American Exploration (National Library of Canada and Canada's Digital Collections)
• The Pioneer Explorations of Scotch Boy John Tod (British Columbia Heritage Branch and Canada's Digital Collections)
• Potlatch Collection (U'Mista Cultural Centre, Alert Bay) documents Kwakiutl cultural objects seized in the early 1920s under a section of the Indian Act prohibiting the potlatch
• Prelude to the Study of a Totem Pole (Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia) documents the Thunderbird Pole (Skiamsm) of Gitanyow (Kitwancool).
• Pride and Dignity: Aboriginal Portraits (National Archives of Canada)
• R.R. Bayne Exhibition (Maltwood Art Museum and Gallery, University of Victoria). Documents the life and work of British architect Richard Roskell Bayne (1837-1901) who practiced architecture for the last decade of his life in Victoria after retiring here from Calcutta, India. As of February 1995-2003, little British Columbia content.
• Rivers, Edens, Empires: Lewis & Clark and the Revealing of America. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress. Scheduled to open in late July 2003, this Web site contains a preview of this exhibit created for the bicentennial anniversary of the Lewis and Clark expedition. Date accessed: 2002.11.17. Date added: 2002.11.17.
• To the Totem Forests: Emily Carr and Contemporaries Interpret Coast Villages (Curated by Peter Macnair and Jay Stewart for the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria)
• Treaty 8, 1899-1999 (National Archives of Canada) commemorates the centennial of this important First Nations treaty that covered part of northeastern BC.
• Unity of Movement: An Exhibition of Three Modern Artists (Maltwood Art Museum and Gallery, University of Victoria). Curated by Laurel Terlesky as a History of Art Project, this exhibit examines the works of Emily Carr, Katharine Maltwood and Myfanwy Pavelic.
• Victory Bonding: Wartime Messages from Canada's Government, 1939-1945 (National Archives of Canada).
• The Wallace B. Chung and Madelaine H. Chung Collection (University of British Columbia Library). Donated in 1999 by the the Chungs, the collection features documents and artifacts relating to voyages of discovery to the Northwest Coast, immigration, and the Canadian Pacific Railway. Date added: 2002.05.19.
• We Will Remember Them: The Lives Behind the Richmond Cenotaph (City of Richmond Archives, BC). Researched and written by Mary Keen.
• Who Killed William Robinson?: Race Justice and Settling the Land (Ruth Sandwell and John Lutz) was developed for use in introductory history classes at the University of Victoria.
• Wilderness to Studio: Four Views of Paul Kane (Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto)
• The Yukon Photographers: Gold Rush Era, 1897-1900 (Government of Yukon Heritage Branch via the Virtual Museum Canada)

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Compiled by David Mattison, Victoria Telecommunity Network, BC. Copyright © 1995-2003 by David Mattison. This site may be freely linked to but not duplicated in any fashion without my consent.