Happy Dominion Day!

Or as we say in these modern times...

Happy Canada Day!

Wishing everyone a safe, happy and fun Canada Day, 

from all of us at the Victorian Society of Alberta.

 153 years looks good on you Canada!

New Feature Book Tuesdays!

Welcome to our new monthly feature!

BOOK TUESDAY

On the first Tuesday of every month(ish) we will be sharing books that have useful, entertaining, and interesting information on Victorian history.

Each post will have one book that deals with the History of Western Canada and one that deals with the greater Victorian World outside of Western Canada.

To get things rolling here are the first two books for you to check out.

Thanks for reading.
The Victorian Spectator.

~~~~~~~~~~ BOOK TUESDAY ~~~~~~~~~~

Ranching with Lords & Commons

By John Craig

 Ranching with Lords & Commons, originally published in 1903, tells the fascinating story of Alberta's famous Oxley Ranch from the perspective of John R. Craig, Oxley's former manager. Craig's passion and knowledge shine through in this overview of what the cattle business was really like when ranching got underway in the late 1800s. In writing about his experiences, Craig's intention was to provide "faithful reproductions of actual facts in the pioneer life of the western cattleman." This story—and the history it reveals—provides an entertaining and informative account of the early days of Alberta's cattle industry.

 

I feel I am justified in presenting a narrative which has the double merit of novelty and truth, and which at the same time serves to relieve me from responsibility for the shortcomings and eccentricities—to put it mildly—of the aristocratic cattlemen with whom it was my lot for some years to be associated, and who are indicated in the title as lords and commons.—John R. Craig

Available at AMAZON and fine used bookstores.

~~~~~~~~

The Victorian Internet:
The Remarkable Story of the Telegraph and the Nineteenth Century's On-Line Pioneers

by Tom Standage

 The Victorian Internet tells the colorful story of the telegraph's creation and remarkable impact, and of the visionaries, oddballs, and eccentrics who pioneered it, from the eighteenth-century French scientist Jean-Antoine Nollet to Samuel F. B. Morse and Thomas Edison. The electric telegraph nullified distance and shrank the world quicker and further than ever before or since, and its story mirrors and predicts that of the Internet in numerous ways.

Available at AMAZON



I am running a regular post "From the Wire" on our FaceBook page with interesting little bits of telegraphic history.
Check it out!
--Ed.
  

Happy Victoria Day!

From all of us at the Victorian Society of Alberta, to all of you, happy Victoria day!

Victorian Society of Alberta

Homesteaders

Another "Living History" series.
This one is set in Manitoba.
Participants have to live on the land for 1 year as if they were newly arrived homesteaders.
A fascinating look at how some modern couples handle the rigours of 19th C frontier in Canada.
The series is 9 parts here is the first one:

The remainder are available here on YouTube

Thanks for reading.
The Victorian Society of Alberts

24 Hours in Victorian England

This series of four videos from Britain are an entertaining, and relatively informative, look at how ordinary people lived and worked in Victorian England.

While conditions for most people in Britain at the time were pretty miserable it is because of those conditions that so many people came out to Canada to start over. For though the "primitive" and "frontier" life in Western Canada was rough, it was much better than being back home.

The rest of the episodes are available on Reel Truth History Documentaries channel on YouTube.

Thanks for reading.

Victorian Society of Alberta

The World is Changing...

And we, alas, must change with it.

The Global Covid-19 pandemic has forced the cancellation of every single event that we would have held or attended this Summer. These cancellations are the right thing to do and we support the efforts of everyone to contain and defeat this pandemic.

However we know your interest in Victorian history has not gone away, and neither has ours, so over the course of the Summer we will be posting lots of interesting information for you to peruse. We hope that you will find these posts entertaining as well as informative, and we welcome your comments. Each post will have a label that will make it easy to search for later.

If you would like more information on anything we have posted, have interesting ideas to share, or questions for us to research, feel free to reach out to us on our Social Media pages or by email to victoriansocietyofalberta at gmail.com

Please be safe and we look forward to seeing you at events in the future when this is all settled.

Greetings!

Welcome to the online home of the Victorian Society of Alberta! 

 We hope you enjoy your visit, learning a little more about us and the era we represent.

While the Victorian era started in 1837 with Queen Victoria’s ascension to the throne, our group focuses on the time of 1880-1914, as this is when the settlement of western Canada started to become a focus of the Canadian government.

Please feel free to meander through our page. 

If you’d like to communicate with us, correspondence should be directed to:

victoriansocietyofalberta at gmail.com

We’d love to hear from you! 

Or, if you’d rather, please come and say hello in person at one of the events we are attending. 

New members always welcome!