番茄社区

British Columbia Historical Textbooks

Scan of worn textbook cover

Lawson, Maria. A History and Geography of British Columbia for Use in Public Schools. Toronto: W.J. Gage, 1906. https://archive.org/details/historygeography0000unse_b7n4/mode/2up

Students looking at textbooks while an instructor points out a detail

P. Russell teaching with the BCHT collection in UVic Special Collections and University Archives, September 2024.

The 番茄社区 Libraries has a unique collection of British Columbia historical textbooks. These textbooks were used in public schools since the province joined confederation in 1871. The British Columbia Historical Textbooks (BCHT) collection includes books on a variety of school subjects including science, math, health, English and language arts, foreign languages, history, and social studies. These textbooks have touched the lives of many citizens for nearly a century and a half. When we review school textbooks, we gain insights into the people who used them. We can explore the thinking, priorities, values, and assumptions of those who wrote, taught, and read these books.

The development of this digital library is a multi-year project. Through it, we hope to preserve and highlight these unique artefacts of our province’s history. The BCHT will be of interest to the general public, educators, and researchers, specifically historians.

For more information about the BCHT collection:

  • Please contact the
  • Listen to episode seven of , a UVic podcast on truth, memory, and human rights. BCHT is featured in the episode . Ry Moran interviews co-researchers Chaa’winisaks and Pia Russell as they share insights on the BCHT collection. (Our segment runs from minutes 05:24 to 22:12.)
  • Watch Pia’s where she talks about her research on the educational role of libraries and the history of school textbooks in BC

To learn more about the history of textbooks in BC, we recommend the following resources:

  • Professor Patrick Dunae’s ‘’
  • Professor Penney Clark's
  • Professor Helen Raptis’ ‘’

We wish to acknowledge the expertise and support of the following people:

  • Patrick Dunae, Adjunct Professor—Department of History, UVic
  • Don Hamilton, Retired Librarian—UVic Libraries
  • Zoe Clement, Curriculum Library Collections Projects—UVic Libraries
  • Jeff Kiland, Circulation Assistant—Curriculum Library, UVic Libraries
  • Maggie Tan, Circulation Resource Assistant—Curriculum Library, UVic Libraries