BC Heritage Week 2025

Heritage Week is an annual event that takes place during the third full week in February. It celebrates and showcases local heritage across the province. This year, Heritage Week: Pastimes in Past Times celebrates the many ways people spent their leisure time throughout history, exploring how these activities have contributed to the cultural fabric of today.

Updated January 28, 2025
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Greater Victoria Public Library
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Working with wool : a Coast Salish legacy and the Cowichan sweater
Olsen, Sylvia
Paper Book
Along the E&N : a journey back to the historic hotels of Vancouver Island
Mofford, Glen
Paper Book
An exploration of the fascinating history of more than thirty historic hotels--with some still in operation--nestled along Vancouver Island's E&N Railway, spanning from Esquimalt to Campbell River. In 1886, Vancouver Island's E&N rail service was established to carry coal to...
Aqua vitae : a history of the saloons and hotel bars of Victoria, 1851-1917
Mofford, Glen
Paper Book
In April 1858 the Fraser River Gold Rush hit, and the sleepy hamlet of Victoria on Vancouver Island got an economic boost. The population nearly doubled overnight, and suddenly locals were rubbing shoulders with prospectors on their way to the gold-fields of the interior, as well as the regular...
Island of champions : a sporting history of Vancouver Island
Dheensaw, Cleve
Paper Book
The Best Loved Boat: The Princess Maquinna
Kennedy, Ian
Paper Book
Built in 1913, the Canadian Pacific Railway's ship Princess Maquinna steamed up and down the rugged west coast of Vancouver Island in summer and winter, calm weather and storms, for over forty years, and has become one of the most beloved boats in BC's maritime history. Princess...
Above the bush : a century of climbing on Vancouver Island, 1912-2012
Elms, Lindsay J.
Paper Book
Wish you were here : life on Vancouver Island in historical postcards
Grant, Peter
Paper Book
The images that Peter Grant has collected are mostly previously unpublished and provide fascinating insights into the social history of life on Vancouver Island from 1904 to 1918. The views capture the life and times, particularly the parties and pleasures, in the Island of this long-ago vanished...
In nature's realm : early naturalists explore Vancouver Island
Layland, Michael
Paper Book
Winner of the 2020 Basil Stuart Stubbs Prize Winner of the 2019 Lieutenant Governor's Medal for Historical Writing A celebration of the richly diverse flora and fauna of Vancouver Island as explored through the records of explorers, settlers, and visitors, and...
Fried eggs & fish scales : tales from a Sointula troller
Taylor, Jon David
Paper Book
Longtime fisherman and Sointula resident Jon Taylor dishes up hilarious yarns from his life off northern Vancouver Island. Capturing the "rough but reasonable" freedom of Malcolm Island, situated off the northeast shore of Vancouver Island, Jon Taylor recounts the bizarre but enticing...
Deep and sheltered waters : the history of Tod Inlet
Gray, David Robert
Paper Book
From the original inhabitants from the Tsartlip First Nation to the lost community of immigrant workers from China and India, from a company town to the development of parkland, the wealth of history in this rich area reflects much of the history of the entire province. The story of Tod Inlet...
Learning to carve argillite
Davidson, Sara Florence
Paper Book
Based on Haida artist Robert Davidson's own childhood experiences, this beautiful story highlights learning through observation, as well as the role of Elders in sharing knowledge and mentorship. Learning to carve is a lifelong journey. With the help of his father and grandfather, a boy on...
Boom & bust : the resilient women of historic Telegraph Cove
Butler, Jennifer L.
Paper Book
Telegraph Cove, one of Vancouver Island's most visited tourist destinations, has humble origins as a one-shack telegraph station, established a century ago. The community grew, first with a salmon saltery and sawmill, then with new industries developed by the ingenuity of the Cove's...

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