When I was Small
When I was Small - A look at the life of a depression era family in the East Kootenay from 1925-1935. Copyright Columbia Basin Institute of Regional History When I was Small is a personal look at how one East Kootenay family survived the Great Depression. The Columbia Basin Institute of Regional History published ...
The unsinkable Bessie Lafleur
Mrs. Isabella (Williamson) Lafleur, universally known as "Bessie," immigrated from Saintfield County, Northern Ireland, in 1915, during the height of World War I. She was a determined and positive young woman who, undeterred by torpedoes and death at sea, proceeded to cross the Atlantic and travel to Cranbrook, B.C. Her older...
Historic racism persists
Gateway, MT Railway Depot, Customs and Immigration Office: #0436.0001 - Image courtesy of Cranbrook Archives and the Columbia Basin Institute of Regional History The question is always, "what can we learn from history?" And more often than not, "nothing" is the reply. At the Columbia Basin Institute, we would argue that history...
Captain Francis Armstrong
The SS Marion and the SS Duchess dock on the Kootenay River near Creston #0015.0019 - Image courtesy of the Columbia Basin Institute of Regional History Captain Armstrong, the brother of the early gold commissioner and government agent J.F. Armstrong, was born in Sorel, Quebec, in 1861. He was an immigrant to East Kootenay,...
Women and Society
Canadian Women's Press ca. 1915. Collection #0119.0102 An excerpt from the Cranbrook Herald of 100 years ago Jan. 17, 1907, supports the continuing national debate on the health of the family, "the glass ceiling," and the general valuation of women's labour in contemporary society. As we often say, by looking back, we move ...
