ΊμΠΣΚΣΖ΅

British Columbia Historical Textbooks

Textbook pages showing colour map of Canada

Bartholomew, John George. Royal Canadian Atlas: A New Series of Physical and Political Maps. Thomas Nelson and Sons: London, 1900–1912. Pages 18–19, archive.org/details/htroyalatlas/page/n23/mode/2up.

Students at a table looking at textbooks and making notes

Education students analyzing the BC Historical Textbooks collection in Special Collections and University Archives at UVic, Fall 2024.

Textbook pages with series of questions and answers and small illustrations of landscapes

Hodgins, J. George. Easy Lessons in General Geography with Maps and Illustrations. John Lovell St Nicholas Street, 1872. Pages 14–15, archive.org/details/ost-geography-easylessonsingen00hodg/page/n17/mode/2up.

Textbook pages with text and botanical illustrations of parts of plants

Groom, Percy. Elementary Botany. The Copp, Clark Company, Limited: Toronto, 1899. Pages 182–183, archive.org/details/elementarybotany0000perc/page/n197/mode/2up.

Classroom of students looking at archival materials

Education students analyzing the BC Historical Textbooks collection in Special Collections and University Archives at UVic, Fall 2024.

Textbook pages with text and illustrations of human skeleton

Martin, H. Newell. The Human Body: an Elementary Textbook of Anatomy, Physiology, and Hygiene. W.J. Gage and Co. Limited: Toronto, 1900. Pages 53–54, archive.org/details/HTHumanBody_201903/page/n63/mode/2up.

Textbook pages showing musical notation

McLaughlin, James M., George A Veazie, and William Wallace Gilchrist First Music Reader. Ginn and Company, 1906. Pages 24–25, archive.org/details/firstmusicreader01mcla/page/24/mode/2up.

Textbook pages showing a series of math problems

Smith, Barnard, and Archibald McMurchy. Elementary Arithmetic for Canadian Schools. Copp, Clark and Co.: Toronto, 1872. Pages 86–87, archive.org/details/1827belementaryarith00smit/page/86/mode/2up

Textbook pages with children's poetry and colour illustrations of the poems

N.A. New Canadian Readers, First Primer. W.J. Gage and Company, Limited, 1901. Pages 34–35, archive.org/details/newcanadianreade0000none/page/34/mode/2up

Special Collections and University Archives at the University of Victoria 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.

  • If you have questions about the collection or would like a presentation about the history of how these books were used, please contact the Education Librarian, Pia Russell.    
  • Watch a  (4 minutes).   
  • 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 a I gave in 2024 to the Children’s History Society Conference in Newcastle, UK, where I compare understandings of settler colonialism in two textbooks.
  • Read a  during the early twentieth-century.
  • Read a in 1910.
  • Explore a lesson plan comparing textbooks used in BC and the UK.  This lesson plan aligns with BC’s Grade 9 Social Studies curriculum and the UK National Curriculum History Program Stage Three.
  • UVic SCUA’s BCHT collection is proud to be a member of INEHC, the .

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

  • Gerry Ambers, Elder in Residence at UVic
  • of The'wa:li (Soowahlie First Nation)
  • Patrick Dunae, Adjunct Professor—Department of History, UVic
  • Don Hamilton, Retired Education Librarian—UVic

Support for the BC Historical Textbooks project is provided by:

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’ ‘’
Teacher speaking with a group of students sitting around a table with textbooks
Education students analyzing the BC Historical Textbooks collection in Special Collections and University Archives at UVic, Fall 2024.