Update: A list current in May 2017 can be found here: https://digitize.library.ubc.ca/uncategorized/bc-historical-newspapers-update-2017/
The BC Historical Newspapers portal is one of our most heavily used digital collections. Occasionally we are delightfully surprised to find out about the creative ways people find to use the collections. Two of our favourite projects come to us courtesy of the great work by folks at Heritage Vancouver and the Revelstoke Museum & Archives: Heritage Vancouver used the Daily Building Record to locate previously missing 1912 Vancouver building permits for the Heritage Vancouver Society Building Permits Database Revelstoke Museum & Archives is using several BC Historical Newspapers titles in the history of snow and avalanche research for an upcoming exhibit. In the process, they are finding information on previously unknown avalanche events and will be adding them to the Canadian Avalanche Centre Database Have you used the BC Historical Newspapers for your own project? Let us know by leaving a comment below!
New in BC Historical Newspapers
Over the past few months, DI staff have been quietly adding issues to the BC Historical Newspapers portal. Since the site first launched in November 2011 we have added 9 new titles in addition to completing the remaining partial runs of 9 of the original titles. In all we have added an additional 8000 issues consisting of over 42,000 pages of community newspapers, nearly matching the original 45,000 pages.
| Cumberland News | 1897-1915 |
| District Ledger (Fernie) Various other titles | 1893-1919 |
| Boundary Creek Times (Greenwood) | 1896-1911 |
| Ledge (Greenwood) | 1906-1926 |
| Moyie Leader | 1898-1911 |
| Economist (Nelson) | 1897-1906 |
| Miner (Nelson) | 1890 (not 1891)-1898 |
| Tribune (Nelson) | 1892-1902 |
| Daily Building Record (Vancouver) | 1912-1914 |
| Anaconda News | 1901-1905 |
|
Coast News (Gibsons)
(Courtesy of Sunshine Coast Museum and Archives)
|
1945-1977, 1983-1989 |
| Enderby Press & Walker’s Weekly (various other titles) | 1909-1921 |
| The Independent (Vancover) | 1900-1903 |
| Western Call (Vancouver) | 1910-1916 |
| Orchard City Record (Kelowna) | 1908-1911 |
| Nicola Valley News (Merritt) | 1910-1916 |
| Revelstoke Herald | 1897-1905 |
What’s next?
A pilot project to move the digitized back issues of UBC’s student newspaper, the Ubyssey from its current home to the BC Historical Newspapers portal has been completed. Starting later this year, we will begin adding issues from 1918-2010. Thanks to the support from a very generous donor, we will also begin adding over 100 titles of early community newspapers in 2013-2014. Coming up:
| Agassiz Record | 1923 |
| Armstrong Advance and Spallumcheen Advocate | 1905-1906 |
| West Fork News (Beaverdell) | 1901 |
| Bennett Sunday | 1899-1900 |
| Brooklyn News | 1898 |
| Radium (Canford) | 1917 |
| Cascade Record | 1898-1901 |
| Chase Tribune | 1912-1914 |
| Chilliwack Free Press | 1911-1912 |
| Fraser Advance (Chilliwack) | 1907 |
| Surrey Times (Cloverdale) | 1895 |
| Coalmount Courier | 1912 |
| Review (Columbia) | 1899 |
| Review (Courtenay) | 1912-1918 |
| Weekly News (Courtenay) | 1892-1896 |
| Cranbrook Herald | 1898-1927 |
| Prospector (Cranbrook) | 1905-1915 |
| Crofton Gazette & Cowichan News | 1902 |
| Islander (Cumberland) | 1910-1916 |
| Cumberland Islander | 1917-1931 |
| Duncan Enterprise & Vancouver Island Advertiser | 1900-1903 |
| Echo (Duncan) | 1908-1909 |
| Advance (Fairview) | 1894 |
| Lardeau Eagle (Ferguson) | 1900-1904 |
| Glenora News | 1898 |
| East Kootenay Miner (Golden) | 1897-1898 |
| Golden Era | 1893-1902 |
| Times (Golden) | 1907-1909 |
| Grand Forks Sunday | 1914-1920 |
| Evening Sunday (Grand Forks) | 1902-1910 |
| Grand Forks Miner | 1896-1898 |
| Grand Forks Sun & Kettle Valley Orchardist | 1911-1913, 1921-1932 |
| Daily Times (Greenwood) | 1900 |
| Greenwood Miner | 1899-1901 |
| Omineca Herald (Hazelton) | 1908-1912 |
| Omineca Miner (Hazelton) | 1911-1918 |
| Hazelton Queek | 1880-1881 |
| Hosmer Times | 1910 |
| Kamloops Wawa | 1901-1917 |
| British Columbia News (Kaslo) | 1897-1898 |
| Evening Kootenaian (Kaslo) | 1898 |
| Kelowna Record | 1912-1920 |
| Keremoeos Chronicle | 1908-1909 |
| Delta News (Ladner) | 1902-1908 |
| Delta Times (Ladner) | 1903-1914 |
| Lillooet Advance | 1911 |
| Prospector (Lillooet) | 1898-1917 |
| Marysville Tribune | 1901-1902 |
| Nicola Herald | 1908-1909 |
| Mission City News | 1893 |
| Despatch (Morrissey) | 1904 |
| Morrrissey Mention | 1916-1917 |
| Morrrissey Miner | 1903 |
| Arrow Lake Advocate (Nakusp) | 1914 |
| Daily Telegram (Nanaimo) | 1893 |
| Nanaimo Courier | 1899 |
| Nanaimo Mail | 1896 |
| Westward Ho (Nanaimo) | 1886 |
| Daily Canadian (Nelson) | 1906-1908 |
| Kootenay Liberal (Nelson) | 1908 |
| Lowery’s Claim (Nelson) | 1901-1906 |
| Nelson Daily Miner | 1898-1902 |
| Nelson Weekly Miner | 1899 |
| Slocan Mining Review (New Denver) | 1906-1908 |
| Slocan Record | 1911 |
| Daily News (New Westminster) | 1906-1914 |
| New Westminster Times | 1859-1961 |
| Pacific Canadian (New Westminster) | 1893-1894; 1916-1917 |
| Nicola Herald | 1905-1908 |
| Express (North Vancouver) | 1905-1912 |
| Okanagan Mining Review | 1893 |
| Penticton Press | 1907-1909 |
| Nugget (Poplar) | 1903-1904 |
| Loyalist (Port Essington) | 1908 |
| Port Essington Loyalist | 1909 |
| Star (Port Essington) | 1908 |
| Sunday (Port Essington) | 1907-1908 |
| Port Moody Gazette | 1883-1887 |
| North Coast (Port Simpson) | 1907-1908 |
| Prince Rupert Journal | 1910-1917 |
| Prince Rupert Optimist | 1909-1911 |
| Quartz Creek Miner | 1897 |
| Queen Charlotte Island | 1911-1914 |
| Kootenay Star (Revelstoke) | 1890-1894 |
| Mail Herald (Revelstoke) | 1906-1917 |
| Evening World (Rossland) | 1901-1904 |
| Industrial World (Rossland) | 1899-1901 |
| Prospector (Rossland) | 1895 |
| Saturday World (Rossland) | 1903 |
| Paystreak (Sandon) | 1896-1902 |
| Silverton | 1898-1901 |
| Slocan Drill | 1900-1905 |
| Cassiar News (Stewart) | 1919-1926 |
| Slocan Prospector (Kaslo) | 1895 |
| Lardeau Mining Review (Trout Lake) | 1904-1907 |
| Coast Miner (Van Anda) | 1900 |
| BC Labour News (Vancouver) | 1921-1922 |
| BC Lumberman (Vancouver) | 1904-1905 |
| BC Trades Unionist (Vancouver) | 1908-1909 |
| Vancouver Building Record | 1911 |
| Greater Vancouver Chinook | 1912-1917 |
| Labor Star (Vancouver) | 1919 |
| Leader-Advocate (Vancouver) | 1923 |
| Mt. Pleasant Advocate (Vancouver) | 1904-1907 |
| Red Flag (Vancouver) | 1918-1919 |
| Western Clarion (Vancouver) | 1904-1924 |
| British Columbia Tribune (Yale) | 1866 |
| Ymir Herald | 1905 |
| Ymir Miner | 1898 |
| Ymir Mirror | 1904 |
This is such an amazing project and resource, and many thanks to your generous donor!
In addition to this resource enabling us to locate missing building permits and key data for Vancouver’s building heritage in 1912, we’ve been using the Daily Building Record from 1912 to 1920 to locate *thousands* of missing detailed descriptions in the historic building permits, which we’re now going through and adding into our online publicly available database.
The Daily Building Record/BC Record is the only publication and source which luckily captured this info on a daily basis, as this info no longer exists within the City, or within any other form.
I’ll be most excited to see the old Coalmont Courier digitized. I’ve looked at them, but the Princeton Museum doesn’t have a way to digitize them and it would be nice to read them properly. I live in Coalmont and have been publishing the New Coalmont Courier for a few years. And yes, its focus is as local as it was in 1912.
I’m very interested in knowing when you might be digitizing the The Prospector from Lillooet up to 1917, or the Lillooet, 1911
Hi Anita, We should have most of them up by the end of the year. I should be able to give you a more accurate timeline soon.
This is excellent news. Thank to all involved!
Any current updates as to when the Lillooet Prospector will be available?
Hi Paula,
We’re hoping to have them up by the end of the year.
Glad to see more digitized information.. Can you please tell me which area the “quartz creek miner” originated from? Possibly the creek in cassiar? Or maybe revelstoke?
Thanks for the great info
Hi Greg, I haven’t seen the paper with my own eyes yet but I believe that the Quartz Creek Miner was published in or around Ymir, B.C. which at one time may have been known by the name Quartz Creek. I’ll verify once I get my hands on the reel.
See: http://www4.rncan.gc.ca/search-place-names/unique.php?id=JBTAG&output=xml
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ymir,_British_Columbia
Thank you so much for all your hard work. The ability to find a piece of family history and finally put the pieces together is a feeling like no other. I can’t wait for the New Westminster and Surrey papers to be added. Thank you again.
Excellent collection. Used a universal search to help fill in the timeline for the McVittie brothers of East Kootenay. Wishing the Cranbrook newspapers (Herald and Prospector) were also available, as there would be lots of additional references.
Glen Belbeck – Calgary
Thanks Glen! The Cranbrook Herald and Prospector will be coming online towards the middle of next year – stay tuned.
This is an amazing project. I’m a Cumberland resident and am particularly eager to browse in its papers from 1910-1931! But I’ll use several of the different publications as I move into the teaching of BC and Vancouver Island history. Thanks UBC, and to your donor/s as well.
Can you tell me when the Hazelton newspapers will be available? I read them on a microfilm reader some years ago but need to do more research. Thank you, Alan
Hi Alan,
Thank you for your interest in the BC Historical Newspapers project. We anticipate that the Hazelton newspapers will probably be available late May/early June 2015.
Hi Mike, the Quartz Creek Miner was a newspaper we put together as part of Ymir’s centennial in 1998. It contained historical information pulled from many difference sources. I haven’t heard of a paper by that name being published in Ymir’s heyday but I’m really looking forward to being able to read the Herald, the Ymir Mirror and the Miner once they are digitized.
Hi Gloria,
The Quartz Creek Miner published from at least March to September 1897 before being renamed the Ymir Miner. Hardly any copies survive. The BC Legislative Library has the edition of 2 Sept 1897 (v. 1, n. 24) while Touchstones Nelson has a hard copy of the special illustrated edition of 28 Oct 1897. The latter is an amazing document if you haven’t seen it, full of photos that don’t appear anywhere else.
Hello there.. Do you know when the Sandon Paystreak will become available online?
Thanks for all the great work!
Cheers…
Hi Sarah,
Thank you for your interest in the BC Historical Newspapers project. We anticipate that the Sandon Paystreak newspapers will probably be available by the end of 2015.
Hello again. Thank you for working hard to get these newspapers on line. Can you tell me why the Smithers, Interior News (which began its life in Aldermere) is not on the list?
Hi Alan,
For BC Historical Newspapers Project we collected all of the available newspapers in the UBC Rare Books and Special Collections archives. If the newspaper you are looking for is not on the list, it may be because it wasn’t available or weren’t part of the archives at that time. Thanks for your interest!
Any idea when the Omenica Herald and Omenica Miner might be on line? – I thought end of May-June but apparently not! Thanks for all the work you’ve done so far – appreciated!
I look fwd to the digital Ymir Miner & Lowery’s Claim (Nelson) & the 4 Rossland papers; I see Rossland is not yet represented. Great work!
Is it poss. to have the Rossland Weekly Miner online too??
Bill:
Thank you for your comment. We enjoy putting up these wonderful resources. The “Rossland Weekly Miner” is not that we have access to through the BC Archives so that will not be part of the collection.
This is a strange request. I live in Ontario and my father L.V.Hogarth joined the 161st Battalion here in Huron County. After arriving in England he was assigned to the 47th New Westminster group and fought in France and Belgium. He sent home a letter with a cartoon drawn on it. He appears to be signed by Bill Boardman. My father described him as a cartoonist for a BC newspaper and a Division Lightweight Boxing Champion. He and my father were both scouts and my dad ended up a sargent sniper.
I would love to share this historical letter with Mr Boardman’s family. We feel it is very special. I am hoping maybe someone would take on this project. We are celebrating 100 years since the 161st left Huron County in October 1916 to serve their country.
A play is being developed, and we will have a dinner, parade, church service, concert and a speaker series.
We shall remember them.
Bonnie Hogarth Sitter Exeter Ontario 519 235 1909 bonnie.sitter@gmail.com
interesting to note the Greater Vancouver Chinook on here, George Matheson Murray’s first startup and where he first hired his future wife Margaret Lally (aka “Ma Murray”) as his assistant. Apparently he wrote some glowing prose regularly; I’m looking forward to seeing it. They had another publication she started at that time…. was it Country Life? (same or similar name as a British horsey rag)…about homecooking and running a country home…..
The fact that papers such as the Enderby one are available on line is -well – awesome -and in image and editable format, too
However, I find it awkward to try to put up both at the same time, and to get to the next issue of the paper (do i really ahve to go back to the year calendar) to navigate in a page (unusual overlay locations, including this feedback one – can’t see a ‘send” button) Is it me or am i missing a “how to use” page?
Thank you
Pietervandersar@attglobal.net
Enderby & district Museum and Archives volunteer
PS I am using this method to contact you as I could not use the “comment” within the newspaper area – see above
Any idea of when the Surrey Times (Cloverdale) 1895 will be available for viewing??
Very eager to see it 🙂
Maybe it already is and I am just not finding it?
Thanks!
Hi Marilyn,
We have digitized 29 issues of the Surrey Times spanning from April to October 1895.
https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/bcnewspapers/surreytimes
Happy Reading!
Alyssa
-Digital Projects Student Librarian
Thank you for putting this info up. I’m trying to find out why my great great grandfather (Joseph Whipple) died in 1911 March 3. His son (my great grandfather) who I knew as a boy. It’s very hard to find information on any of this. He might of died in a construction accident, because he was a carpenter from maine US (1899). thank for your efforts, and god bless.
Arthur Moss Foster from Selby, Yorkshire, committed suicide in a hotel in Nelson in April 1897. I am interested to know whether this publication can lead me to more information about him and the wherabouts of his grave.
Hi David,
We performed searches on our collection, and we found one item that mentions Mr. Arthur Moss Foster’s death. The article mention that Mr. Foster committed suicide on the Hotel Allen, in Rossland, BC. It was published on April 24, 1897 on The Miner newspaper. Unfortunately, there is no mention of his grave.
Paula
– Digital Projects Student Librarian
You probably know this, but just in case –
The Selkirk College Library at Castlegar has a huge collection of papers (70+) mostly from the West Kootenays. They may well have copies of papers UBC Rare Books don’t have.
Jon Bartlett
http://www.jonandrika.org
Hi Jon,
Thank you for sharing!
Paula
– Digital Projects Student Librarian
Rossland Weekly Miner – I’ve noticed that digitized versions of this paper are online at Canadiana by CKRN. They only have 1896-1904. Are you able to add any more content?
Hi Maureen,
Unfortunately there are no upcoming or proposed projects for that particular paper at the moment.This link tells you a bit more about how we acquire content: https://digitize.library.ubc.ca/work/