Victoria's early history

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This collection includes a selection of early Victoria and Vancouver Island maps, books, pamphlets and ephemera, together with archival material drawn from the Sylvester fonds. Frank Sylvester was an early Jewish settler to Victoria, involved in the Fire Department and the negotiation of Labour Contracts.

Highlights:

• Maps in the collection include an 1855 survey of South-Eastern Vancouver Island, an 1897 map of the Victoria area for bicyclists, and topographical sketches of Vancouver Island districts.
• Victoria's Legislative buildings (often called the Parliament buildings) including an invitation to the opening of the new buildings in 1898.
• The early days of the Victoria Fire Department (including their Constitution and By-Laws)
• Pioneer life in early Victoria through accounts by Frank Sylvester and Edgar Fawcet and through Frank Sylvester's commonplace book (something between a diary and a scrapbook).
• Statistical details about the region, ranging from weather to salmon canning to municipal revenue.

Images:

• Victoria Illustrated (a.k.a Victoria: The Queen City), a book produced by the Colonist newspaper in 1891, is "finely illustrated throughout" with a mix of photographs and engravings
• Smaller illustrated booklets: Picturesque Glimpses of Victoria, Picturesque Victoria, BC, and Victoria the Capital City of British Columbia.

See also:

• Victoria's Victoria -- micro history studies by University of Victoria students
• Early BC Maps -- maps from Hudson's Bay Archives, The British Columbia Archives and the B.C. Lands Survey Office