History Books From BC

British Columbia is at the forefront of a secularizing movement in the English-speaking world. Nearly half its residents claim no religious affiliation, and the province has the highest rate of unbelief or religious indifference in Canada. Infidels and the Damn Churches explores the historical roots of this phenomenon from the 1880s to the First World War.

Lynne Marks reveals that class and racial tensions fuelled irreligion in a world populated by embattled ministers, militant atheists, turn-of …

On a winter's day in 1889, Tsimshian Chief Arthur Wellington Clah went to Hannah and Richard Maynard's photography studio in Victoria "to give myself likeness." In Images from the Likeness House, Dan Savard explores the relationship between First Peoples in British Columbia, Alaska and Washington and the photographers who made images of them from the late 1850s to the 1920s. He gives examples of the great technological advancements that took place, from wet-glass-plate to nitrate-film negatives, …

Victoria, BC, July 11th 191. . . . With red eyes and a body guard of sniffing "faithfuls" attending us, we start on our long trip abroad. . . .

So begins Emily Carr's memoir of her trip to England with her sister Alice. They travel across Canada by rail to board an ocean liner in Quebec City, meeting interesting characters and having many adventures along the way. They hike in "gloriously cool and beautiful" Glacier House, and encounter porcupines and wasps in otherwise "heavenly" Lake Louise.

Th …

In 1899, at age 27, Emily Carr travelled to London to attend art school. She spent almost five years in England, and in this time her life completely changed. She returned to Canada in 1904 a mature woman, eyes widened from living abroad, chastened because of ill health and technically proficient as an artist.

Historian Kathryn Bridge takes a fresh look at Emily Carr's time in England. She reveals new evidence that fills in many of the gaps in our knowledge of this important phase of Carr's life, …