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Author: Julie Lawson
Publisher: Penguin Books
Published: 2001
Total Pages: 100
ISBN-13: 9780141002507
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe year is 1896 and Emily pines for a bicycle, the latest craze. On the other side of Victoria's James Bay Bridge is Chinatown and thousands of Chinese immigrants who are looking for a better life in Canada.
Author: Emily Carr
Publisher: DigiCat
Published: 2022-08-16
Total Pages: 162
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKDigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "The Book of Small" by Emily Carr. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.
Author: Robert Ratcliffe Taylor
Publisher: FriesenPress
Published: 2020-02-08
Total Pages: 219
ISBN-13: 1525547054
DOWNLOAD EBOOKRevealing a little-known chapter in the history of Victoria, British Columbia, The Birdcages, the province’s first legislative buildings, were built 1859-1864, the formative, tumultuous time of the Gold Rushes. Constructed on the site of the present Legislature, they were built amid controversy and derided for their style. The brainchild of Governor James Douglas, they resembled, according to journalist/politician Amor de Cosmos, “something between a Dutch toy and a Chinese pagoda.” Readers will discover how civil servants and politicians felt about them as a workplace and what the general public thought about them as civic architecture. The career of their designer, the mysterious Hermann Otto Tiedemann, one of Victoria’s vivid early “characters,” is recounted as are the contributions of local contractors and tradesmen. The site of events of national importance until their demise in 1898, the Birdcages reflected the history, character, and heritage of Victoria and played an important role in the developing political traditions of the province and the young Dominion of Canada. A place for political demonstrations and community celebrations, the House of Assembly was where the MLAs debated joining Confederation, granting the vote to women, and excluding Asian immigrants. Based on personal memoirs and letters, government documents, photographs and plans, this book will interest both students and adults, history buffs and professional historians.
Author: John David Adams
Publisher: TouchWood Editions
Published: 2001
Total Pages: 260
ISBN-13: 9780920663776
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAt the pinnacle of his career, Sir James Douglas, fur trader and colonial governor, was knighted by the order of Queen Victoria, and greatly enjoyed the pomp of his position. Considering his modest beginnings as a mixed-race baby in South America, this lofty status was remarkable. The life of Amelia, companion throughout James' long rise, saw even more surprising changes. Amelia was of mixed blood too, being part-Cree, part-Scot. She never left the northern Canadian forests until she married James, but ended up a respected lady of the Empire. Between them, James and Amelia Douglas knew everybody who was anybody in western North America. Their lives saw astonishing contrasts, from crossing North America by canoe to touring Europe by train, from Native uprisings to frantic gold rushes. They met with grief as well as glory, losing seven of their beloved children. This is an engaging story of courage and companionship - though James Douglas's role as a public figure is well known, this book offers the first real glimpses of him as a private man, husband and father.
Author: John Adams
Publisher: TouchWood Editions
Published: 2011-07-15
Total Pages: 258
ISBN-13: 1926971728
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAugust 12, 2003, marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Sir James Douglas. Although he played an integral role in British Columbia's history, in many ways Douglas remains misunderstood and an enigma. He is known for his contradictory qualities—he was self-serving, racist, a military hawk, sometimes violent and arrogant. Yet he was also extremely community oriented, a humanitarian, brave and a devoted family member. John Adam's bestseller Old Square-Toes and His Lady: The Life of James and Amelia Douglas serves as an important source of information regarding Douglas's public and private lives. As Adams writes, [the term] old square-toes characterizes him as an unbending, stodgy, boring individual, but nothing could be further from the truth. At the pinnacle of his career, Douglas was knighted by order of Queen Victoria. Considering his modest, mixed-race beginnings in South America, his lofty status is, indeed, remarkable. Equally so is the life of his wife, Amelia. She was also of mixed blood, her mother being Cree and her father Irish. But unlike Douglas, who was educated in Scotland, she never left the northern forests until they married. Their ending up as a knight and lady of the British Empire was an unusual achievement. Old Square-Toes discusses the Douglases' diverse experiences of astonishing contrasts, from crossing North America by canoe to touring Europe by train, from Native uprisings to the frantic gold rush. Besides finding glory, they also faced grief in losing seven of their beloved children. This is a story of the adventure, heartbreak, and devotion that lies at the roots of western Canada.
Author: Robert R. Taylor
Publisher: TouchWood Editions
Published: 2012
Total Pages: 218
ISBN-13: 1927129273
DOWNLOAD EBOOKBuilt in 1889 and now home to the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, the Spencer Mansion is a magnificent building with a rich and layered history. With detailed research, historian and author Robert Ratcliffe Taylor describes the original appearance of the house, designed by William Ridgway Wilson for Alexander Green and his family, as well as its inhabitants over the decades. Also known as Gyppeswyk, after the village in England where Green wed Theophila Rainer, the house is more commonly referred to as the Spencer Mansion, after later owners David and Emma Spencer. The book also chronicles the brief period when the residence served as BC's Government House and concludes with the story of how the house came to function as an art gallery. A unique book, The Spencer Mansionshowcases a true gem of Victoria's architecture and history.
Author: Ontario Northland Transportation Commission
Publisher:
Published: 1913
Total Pages: 114
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAuthor: Robert Ratcliffe Taylor
Publisher: FriesenPress
Published: 2024-07-24
Total Pages: 181
ISBN-13: 1039184553
DOWNLOAD EBOOKIn 1860, Cary Castle was built by George Hunter Cary in Victoria, the bustling Gold Rush capital of Vancouver Island. Cary was the brilliant “Boy Attorney-General,” unethical, unpopular and mentally disturbed—one of the colony’s vivid early characters. In 1865 Governor Arthur Kennedy forced the parsimonious Legislative Assembly to purchase the mansion as Vancouver Island’s Government House. After 1871, it became the vice-regal residence of the new province of British Columbia which it remained until it burned down in 1899. Defectively built and uncomfortable to live in, prone to drafts, fires and water leakage, it nevertheless reflected the character and heritage of Victoria and played an important role in the history of the province and Canada. The venue of elegant social events, as well as personal dramas, the mansion hosted British royalty, governors general, naval officers and local political leaders, and could have become a Canadian historic site. Cary Castle was also a family home for vice-regal couples where babies were born, boys slid down the bannister in the main hall, nasty diseases were endured and the Chinese “help’ was indispensable. Based on personal memoirs and letters, government documents, newspaper articles, photographs and plans, this book recreates how that idiosyncratic mansion looked and even smelled. Professor Martin Segger described Dr. Taylor’s earlier study, The Birdcages. British Columbia’s First Legislative Buildings (Friesen, 2020), as “a significant contribution, [with] fascinating detail, [and] a highly readable writing style.” (Ormsby Review, April 22, 2020) Between Heaven and Balmoral expands the picture of colonial Victoria developed in The Birdcages and will appeal to readers interested in Victoria’s history, especially its early social and architectural development.
Author: Danda Humphreys
Publisher: Heritage House Publishing Co
Published: 2000
Total Pages: 196
ISBN-13: 9781894384094
DOWNLOAD EBOOKIn the mid-1800s, Victoria grew from a fur-trading post into a provincial capital--the jewel in British Columbia's golden crown. Meanwhile, many of the early residents, happy to leave the Hudson's Bay Company behind, followed simple trails from the fort or discovered new routes of their own. In her first book, Danda Humphreys introduced readers to some of the people who forged those pioneer pathways. Now she takes us another step back in time to the roads and railways that connected the original city's core to today's suburbs. From Saanich to Sooke, street names tell stories of intrigue and adventure: Rowland Avenue, named for the farm labourer with a sinister sideline: hangman for the HBC. Joan Crescent, where coal baron Robert Dunsmuir's widow once resided in solitary splendour in a castle called Craigdarroch. Sidney Avenue, close to where the Brethour brothers donated land for the northern terminus of the "Cordwood Express," first train to link the city with the Saanich Peninsula and the islands in the Strait of Georgia. In this second book in her On the Street Where You Live trilogy, Danda once again combines her passion for the past with a penchant for lively prose to bring you stories about Victoria's pioneers. You know the streets; now meet the people--their lives, their loves and the legends they left behind.
Author: Danda Humphreys
Publisher: Heritage House Publishing Co
Published: 1999
Total Pages: 200
ISBN-13: 9781894384315
DOWNLOAD EBOOKToday, the streets of Victoria are busy thoroughfares. Yesterday, they were simple trails, used by the Hudson's Bay Company men and the First Nations people who traded with them and helped build their fort. Then came the gold miners, followed by the bankers and businessmen, sailors and saloon-keepers, poets, postmasters, architects and astronomers. They're remembered in Victoria's city's streets . . .and every street name tells a story: Courtney Street is a misspelled memorial to Captain George W. Courtenay, whose Constancewas one of the first of Her Majesty's vessels to sail into Esquimalt Harbour in the 1840s. Fan Tan Alley provides a tantalizing glimpse into 1800s Chinatown, where Fan Tan gambling dens existed alongside brothels and opium factories that fuelled the gamblers' fortunes. Rattenbury Place is named for the ill-fated architect who designed the Empress Hotel and the Parliament Buildings. Danda's knack for colourful, no-nonsense writing makes history come alive. You'll sympathize with the characters she writes about, enjoy them and through their eyes experience 19-century Victoria in a way you've never experienced it before.
