The objects within Open Collections are beautiful, often rare, and allow connection with history as only primary sources can. As your humble blog correspondent, I am consistently struck with how different things were, yet what we are interested in, our concerns, and struggles are the same. This week, let’s see what the past has to tell us about how to live our lives.

Facts and figures relating to Vancouver Island and British Columbia showing what to expect and how to get there by Joseph Despard Pemberton. I moved to Vancouver about a year ago, and am always interested in different historical perspectives on this place.

This section of a book containing Chinese medicine formulas could be exactly what you need! It may have been brought by or for the Freemasons.

The Traité Général des Pesches, et histoire des Poissons qu’elles fournissent, tant pour la subsistance des hommes, que pour plusieurs autres usages qui ont rapport aux arts et au commerce contains everything one needs to know about fish, fisheries, and everything connected. I’ve never gone further than a hook and line, maybe this is the time to obtain to a fishing boat?

This set of correspondence regarding a herring shipment from the Chung Collection proves that sometimes, life is just paperwork.

This letter from the History of Nursing in Pacific Canada reminds me that it’s always the right time to write a letter to someone I care about.