Project update:
Early next year, the Digitization Centre will make the second phase of the BC Sessional papers digitization project from years 1887 to 1911 available online for all to access.
What are sessional papers?
Sessional papers contain materials that document the political, historical, economic and cultural history of British Columbia. The sessional papers include official committee reports, orders of the day, petitions, correspondence, maps, images, voters lists by districts, and more.
Using sessional papers for research
Sessional papers are great resources for research. From birth, marriage and death registries, to reports, graphs, maps, and photographs related immigration, mining, fisheries, famers’ institutes, education, the Canadian Pacific Railway and more, the sessional papers can aid providing context and facts for a certain period on BC’s history.
Check out our current selection of BC Sessional Papers tabled in the Legislative Council of BC (2nd to 8th Sessions, 1865-1871) and the Legislative Assembly (1st to 32nd Parliaments, 1872-1982).
Page examples from Sessional Papers:
From 1899.
From 1902 report on agriculture.
From 1904 mining report.
1904 map depicting coal in South-east Kootenay, BC
From 1905 fisheries report.
Page from a 1905 high school examination
Page from a 1905 high school examination
Image from a 1907 report.
