Innholdsfortegnelse for 54.4 Winter 2021 i British Columbia History

Censorship invariably has a negative connotation, especially when it comes to news media. But what if the censor is actually on your side? That was the unlikely case with The New Canadian, the only Japanese-Canadian newspaper allowed to publish after 1941. Founded in 1938 in Vancouver, the weekly English-language paper was intended for the Nisei, second-generation Japanese Canadians. Its appearance coincided with a rise in racist political invective, culminating with the internment of Japanese Canadians in the BC Interior following the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Unlike its contemporaries that were forced to close, The New Canadian kept producing weekly editions because authorities considered it a useful propaganda outlet. While it was no secret that the paper was censored during the war, the surprising nature of that censorship was revealed in…

Under a cloudy February sky, Nellie waits for her guest at the front gate of a three-storey clapboard house. She hasn’t had much work since the new year began, but perhaps she should appreciate the lull. Not all pregnant women she assists have healthy medical outcomes or the means to raise a child. Besides working as a midwife, Nellie arranges adoptions.1 There have been joyous births inside her house too, and she is grateful to have studied under Sister Frances Redmond at St. Luke’s House, a short distance away.2 Nellie gazes at the bare tree in the yard, its limbs trembling. She remembers when she and her husband moved to the Strathcona neighbourhood in 1917, the year women in BC were granted the vote.3 Suffragists were a noisy lot, and…

Many British Columbians are familiar with the iconic totems and mystical forests of the artist Emily Carr (1871–1945) but relatively few know about her work as a cartoonist for the Victoria journal The Week: A Provincial Review and Magazine in 1905. When she was inspired by a current topic, her fine draftsmanship created memorable images, revealing the range of her talent. The cartoons also offer a glimpse into “the way we were” over a century ago. Much has changed since then, but these images suggest that we were already concerned with “western alienation,” new technology, gender relations—and the weather. This article examines six of her more significant cartoons. In the early 20th century, BC was experiencing rapid modernization: the lines defining the Liberal and Conservative parties had clarified; the need…

“NO STOPPING NEXT 3 kms.” I pay heed to a stark yellow sign on the road that bisects the remains of Lytton, catching glimpses of blackened foundations, burned-out vehicles, and solitary chimneys as I drive slowly past a lightly screened fence. Rain has tamped down the acrid smell of ash and chemicals. It comes eight weeks too late. The town has no hospital. No homes or businesses. No life. A fire driven by intense winds and a record-breaking heat wave roared through Lytton on June 30, 2021, as citizens scrambled for their lives. In just 20 minutes the historic village was gone, and two people were killed. I’m driving to meet Lorna Fandrich at her family’s nearby Kumsheen Rafting Resort. She built the Lytton Chinese History Museum, which held 1,600…

The venerable Nelson Daily News published from 1902 to 2010, and at its peak in 1968 boasted a daily circulation of 10,000—which exceeded the city’s population. The paper was distributed from the Okanagan to southern Alberta and had a network of more than 40 community correspondents. But the most oft-told story in its history didn’t relate to anything that appeared on its pages. In 1935, the paper installed a three-sided flashing neon sign on its roof that read “DAILY NEWS.” It became a local landmark and within months played a role in the case of a lost Northwest Airlines plane bound from Helena, Montana, to Spokane, Washington. After the plane strayed hopelessly off course in heavy fog, the only clue the crew had to orient themselves was the flashing Daily…

Katherine Neylene (Fraser) Peele was born in 1880 in a little house at 31 Albert Crescent in New Westminster, overlooking the Fraser River.1 As a youth she was bestowed with a quick mind and immediate memory for people, pioneers, places, and events of the past. A few years after graduating from Royal City High School, this prodigal daughter returned as a schoolteacher. By 1905, Katherine was among “the best known young women of the city” before marrying hometown lacrosse superstar Clarence (C.D.) Peele.2 Her newspaper career began with writing sports and news copy for the British Columbian in 1908. She became the paper’s social reporter during the following decade. By the 1920s, Mrs. C.D. Peele had matured into the anonymous author of the weekly Royal City Social Notes column, where…

It’s the dawn of the 20th century in British Columbia. Immigrants are facing unprecedented challenges prompted by racial notions that the community holds about them, placing obstacles in their path to settle. A war that will only contribute towards discriminatory presumptions and practices is looming in the near future. Within the multicultural yet racially divided province exists a relatively peaceful anomaly—Paldi, a town founded in 1916 near Duncan, by a Sikh immigrant and his team of Punjabi and Japanese workers. As a South-Asian resident in British Columbia who only recently became aware of Paldi and is eager to share its story, my aim is to demonstrate that our limited knowledge about this town has been caused, in part, by current publication and archival methods that hinder the accessibility of nontraditional…

In March 1935, several Fraser Valley newspapers reported the robbing and kidnapping of Agassiz taxi driver Charles Inkman. On a foggy Friday night on March 2, Inkman picked up three men in his taxi from a concert in Agassiz. A “towel was thrown around his neck and he was dragged into the rear compartment of his car.”1 The men robbed him of $10 (about $195 in 2021). Two of the men held him down while the third man drove the car.2 The trip to Vancouver took several hours due to the fog. When they arrived at 4:00 a.m., Inkman was taken to a downtown resort. Newspapers are a wonderful resource for historians—I’ve been able to piece together the story of the kidnapping of Charles Inkman and the arrest and trials…

My own experience of newspapers has always been positive. I’ve consumed their pages from my earliest days, reading the daily black-and-white comics, graduating to the full-colour weekend spread, searching for movie showtimes, and finally hunting up family obituaries. Newspapers have been a window to look through, a place to be seen. As a budding journalist, writing for a newspaper became an early goal, and I felt well on my way with my first fully published piece in my local community paper, the Salmon Arm Observer, when I was still a teenager.1 While larger newsprint media may be allied with political movements and special interest groups,2 local community papers seem to hold dear the idea of community-interest content. More recently some community papers have begun to explore the notion of transforming history…

These fragments were discovered after the fires at the Kumsheen Rafting Resort site, once the location of a Chinese railway camp. Lorna Fandrich is rebuilding the collection for the Lytton Chinese History Museum, and her brother-in-law is assisting by gathering artifacts. If you have Chinese artifacts to share, please them send to: Fred Fandrich, 63420 Yale Road, Hope, BC V0X 1L2 Richard Forrest is also collecting journals, photographs, and other items for the Lytton Museum & Archives. Contact rforrest@botaniecreek.com. John Haugen is seeking Nlaka’pamux baskets for the Lytton First Nation and to rebuild his personal collection. Contact cc.jhaugen@lfn.band…

The British Columbia Historical Federation invites submissions for The 39th Annual Lieutenant Governor’s Historical Writing Awards Submission Deadline: 31 December 2021 Lieutenant Governor’s Medal and other prizes: BC Lieutenant Governor’s Medal for Historical Writing Medal winner $2,500 Second prize $1,500 Third prize $500 The Community History Award $500 Find the entry form at www.bchistory.ca/awards/historical-writing/ Please do not mail books to the BCHF mailbox. Get Published British Columbia History welcomes ideas for feature articles, as well as articles, photos, and book suggestions for our regular sections. British Columbia History is committed to publishing content that informs, entertains, and connects readers across British Columbia. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts. Please contact the editor with a brief overview of your work prior to submission. British Columbia History’s Style Guide and Checklist are available…

Four months after his election as the fifth mayor of Rossland, Quebec-born Charles Octave Lalonde glanced through the inaugural edition of the Rossland Evening World. It was May Day 1901. The four-page daily was dedicated to the mine workers of the bustling Kootenay mining town that Harold Kingsmill, Rossland’s first historian, envisaged as “the nucleus of a big city.”1 The paper was also committed to fighting the owners of the rich Le Roi Mining Company and that fight was brewing. The bushy-bearded Lalonde might have felt a sense of civic pride given that two daily newspapers now served a population of just over 6,000.2 Had the Rossland Record, the town’s oldest paper, survived beyond the previous December, Rossland might have enjoyed the unique status of being the only town in…

For the past decade, the Société historique francophone de la Colombie-Britannique (SHFCB) has been collecting and digitizing the newspapers and newsletters of the province’s Francophone community. Simple, you might think... BC’s Francophone community began laying its organizational roots in Vancouver in 1886 and in Victoria in the 1930s, but it was the establishment in 1945 of the Fédération des Canadiens français de la C.-B that enabled organized groups and activities to take place in several cities throughout the province. When the SHFCB was established in 2009, it inherited the archives of a previous Francophone historical society, also based in Vancouver, that shut down in 1993. The new curator was happy to find older issues of newsletters issued by the various Francophone organizations in some 15 BC cities and towns, but…

In late May 2019, the mayor of New Westminster, Jonathan Coté, donned wrestling tights and got “ready to rumble” as “Johnny X.” The event capped off “rumble month” and was meant to revive interest in professional wrestling in the Royal City where it had once been popular.1 The Queen’s Park Arenex was a vital part of the local live wrestling scene, which included the Garden Auditorium and later the Agrodome at the Pacific National Exhibition, the Coquitlam Sports Centre, as well as the Chilliwack Agricultural Hall. Saturday afternoon All Star Wrestling hosted by Ron Morrier of Burnaby’s CHAN television began broadcasting in 1962.2 Friday Night Wrestling The Queen’s Park Arenex was opened in 1938 as a hard-surface sports facility because the Queen’s Park Arena, built in 1930 after the exhibition…

British Columbia History is a quarterly magazine chronicling British Columbia’s unique story through the words and images of community writers, archivists, museum professionals, academic historians, and more. SUBMISSIONS Our editorial team makes every effort to respond to all submission enquiries; however, our magazine operates with a small part-time staff and it may take some time for us to get back to you. PRINT SCHEDULE Our editorial team works with set copy deadlines and must often finalize content six months or more in advance of publication. UPCOMING THEMES…

Located at the bottom of Johnson Road in Port Alberni, the Arlington Hotel was built in 1893 by Matt Ward. Apart from having a booming saloon trade, the Arlington also offered lodging and had a dining room with seating for 90 people. Ward was known as a gracious host providing comfortable rooms for guests and managing a staff that provided top-notch banquets for social groups and clubs such as the International Order of Foresters. In later years the Arlington Hotel would become better known for its beer parlour, especially in the 1980s and 1990s— a great example of adapting to change to survive! In 2012 it was re-opened under the new name the Blue Marlin Inn. It now serves as a bed and breakfast, but still has a pub and…