[Bcma-l] UVIC uncovers Empire's correspondence
bcma-l@museumsassn.bc.ca
bcma-l@museumsassn.bc.ca
Fri, 28 Nov 2008 15:36:49 -0800
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*Media Release*
Date: October 30,
2008
*UVIC UNCOVERS EMPIRE'S CORRESPONDENCE*
If not for some quick-acting faculty and staff at the University of
Victoria, over 7000 digital files transcriptions of all the government
documents that passed between Victoria and London in the colonial
periodmight have been lost forever.
As UVic prepared to shut down its last IBM mainframe a technology
workhorse that housed all research applications since the late 1960sUVIC
faculty and staff discovered important digital files. They contained
Emeritus Professor James Hendrickson's massive project undertaken in the
1980s: the transcription from difficult-to-read archival documents of
all the Vancouver Island and British Columbia Colonial Despatches.
Colonial Despatches (the 19th century spelling of dispatches) are the
most authoritative documentary source available for the gold rush,
Aboriginal relations and the colonial period in BC. They were a special
kind of correspondence communications between the governor of a colony
and the Colonial Office in London. The despatches included related
correspondence, maps, legislation, and clippings. Governors were
required to report on everything of importance that happened in their
colony.
"The Colonial Despatches paint a compelling picture of the colonial
period of BC," says UVic history professor John Lutz. "With BC's 150th
birthday just around the corner not only is the digital publication of
the despatches timely, but it also provides a valuable resource for land
title and many other issues."
Thanks to a grant from the Ike Barber Foundation, matched by UVic
Libraries, Hendrickson's transcriptions of the 1858 despatches,
originally encoded in the pre-Internet era, have been re-encoded to
current international standards. For the first time, these are being
made available in a publicly accessible website
(http://bcgenesis.uvic.ca).
/ /
/On November 3 UVic's Humanities' Computing and Media/
/Centre, UVic Libraries and the Department of History launched this/
/new website, complete with transcriptions and scans of the original/
/despatches at theMaritime Museum of British Columbia./
/ /
--30--
* *
*Media Contacts:*
John Lutz (History) at 250-721-7392 or jlutz@uvic.ca Chris Petter
(McPherson Library) at 250-721-8247 or cpetter@uvic.ca Maria Lironi
(UVic Communications) at 250-721-6139 or lironim@uvic.ca
* *
*UVic Communications Services, PO Box 1700 STN CSC Victoria, BC V8W 2Y2*
*Tel. (250) 721-7636 Fax (250) 721-8955 E-Mail: ucom@uvic.ca*
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<div class="Section1">
<p class="MsoNormal" style=""><b><font face="Times New Roman" size="5"><span
style="font-size: 17.5pt; font-weight: bold;">Media
Release<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span
style="font-size: 12pt;">Date: October 30,<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span
style="font-size: 12pt;">2008<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span
style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style=""><b><font face="Arial" size="4"><span
style="font-size: 14.5pt; font-family: Arial; font-weight: bold;">UVIC
UNCOVERS
EMPIRE’S CORRESPONDENCE<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span
style="font-size: 12pt;">If not for some
quick-acting faculty and staff at the University of<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style=""><st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><font
face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Victoria</span></font></st1:place></st1:State>,
over 7000 digital files transcriptions of all the government<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span
style="font-size: 12pt;">documents that passed
between <st1:State w:st="on">Victoria</st1:State> and <st1:City
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">London</st1:place></st1:City> in the
colonial<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span
style="font-size: 12pt;">periodmight have been
lost forever.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span
style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span
style="font-size: 12pt;">As UVic prepared to shut
down its last IBM mainframe a technology<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span
style="font-size: 12pt;">workhorse that housed all
research applications since the late 1960sUVIC<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span
style="font-size: 12pt;">faculty and staff
discovered important digital files. They contained<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span
style="font-size: 12pt;">Emeritus Professor James
Hendrickson’s massive project undertaken in the<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span
style="font-size: 12pt;">1980s: the transcription
from difficult-to-read archival documents of<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span
style="font-size: 12pt;">all the <st1:place w:st="on">Vancouver Island</st1:place>
and British Columbia Colonial Despatches.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span
style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span
style="font-size: 12pt;">Colonial Despatches (the
19th century spelling of dispatches) are the<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span
style="font-size: 12pt;">most authoritative
documentary source available for the gold rush,<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span
style="font-size: 12pt;">Aboriginal relations and
the colonial period in BC. They were a special<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span
style="font-size: 12pt;">kind of correspondence communications
between the governor of a colony<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span
style="font-size: 12pt;">and the Colonial Office
in <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">London</st1:place></st1:City>.
The
despatches included related<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span
style="font-size: 12pt;">correspondence, maps,
legislation, and clippings. Governors were<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span
style="font-size: 12pt;">required to report on
everything of importance that happened in their<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span
style="font-size: 12pt;">colony.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span
style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span
style="font-size: 12pt;">"The Colonial
Despatches paint a compelling picture of the colonial<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span
style="font-size: 12pt;">period of BC," says
UVic history professor John Lutz. "With BC’s 150th<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span
style="font-size: 12pt;">birthday just around the
corner not only is the digital publication of<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span
style="font-size: 12pt;">the despatches timely,
but it also provides a valuable resource for land<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span
style="font-size: 12pt;">title and many other
issues."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span
style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span
style="font-size: 12pt;">Thanks to a grant from
the Ike Barber Foundation, matched by UVic<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span
style="font-size: 12pt;">Libraries, Hendrickson’s
transcriptions of the 1858 despatches,<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span
style="font-size: 12pt;">originally encoded in the
pre-Internet era, have been re-encoded to<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span
style="font-size: 12pt;">current international
standards. For the first time, these are being<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span
style="font-size: 12pt;">made available in a
publicly accessible website<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span
style="font-size: 12pt;">(<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://bcgenesis.uvic.ca">http://bcgenesis.uvic.ca</a>).<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style=""><i><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span
style="font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic;"><o:p> </o:p></span></font></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style=""><i><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span
style="font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic;">On
November 3 UVic’s Humanities’ Computing and Media<o:p></o:p></span></font></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style=""><i><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span
style="font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic;">Centre,
UVic Libraries and the Department of History launched this<o:p></o:p></span></font></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style=""><i><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span
style="font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic;">new
website, complete with transcriptions and scans of the original<o:p></o:p></span></font></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style=""><i><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span
style="font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic;">despatches
at <st1:PlaceName w:st="on">theMaritime</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType
w:st="on">Museum</st1:PlaceType>
of <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">British Columbia</st1:place></st1:State>.<o:p></o:p></span></font></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style=""><i><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span
style="font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic;"><o:p> </o:p></span></font></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span
style="font-size: 12pt;">--30--<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style=""><b><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span
style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: bold;"><o:p> </o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style=""><b><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span
style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: bold;">Media
Contacts:<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span
style="font-size: 12pt;">John Lutz (History) at
250-721-7392 or <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:jlutz@uvic.ca">jlutz@uvic.ca</a> Chris Petter<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span
style="font-size: 12pt;">(McPherson Library) at
250-721-8247 or <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:cpetter@uvic.ca">cpetter@uvic.ca</a> Maria Lironi (UVic Communications) at
250-721-6139 or <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:lironim@uvic.ca">lironim@uvic.ca</a><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style=""><b><font face="Arial" size="1"><span
style="font-size: 8.5pt; font-family: Arial; font-weight: bold;"><o:p> </o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style=""><b><font face="Arial" size="1"><span
style="font-size: 8.5pt; font-family: Arial; font-weight: bold;">UVic
Communications
Services, PO Box 1700 STN CSC <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Victoria</st1:City>,
<st1:State w:st="on">BC</st1:State> <st1:PostalCode w:st="on">V8W 2Y2</st1:PostalCode></st1:place><o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style=""><b><font face="Arial" size="1"><span
style="font-size: 8.5pt; font-family: Arial; font-weight: bold;">Tel.
(250) 721-7636
Fax (250) 721-8955 E-Mail: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:ucom@uvic.ca">ucom@uvic.ca</a><o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span
style="font-size: 12pt;" lang="EN-CA"><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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