Victoria in the Dawn of a New Century is the work of senior undergraduate History students at Vancouver Island University. It was class project completed in March 2003 for History 351 (Twentieth Century British Columbia). Dr Patrick Dunae was the course supervisor and project director.
In this project, we looked at the social ecology and historical geography of Victoria at the turn of the twentieth century. We hoped to learn more about the character of the city by addressing some basic questions. We wanted to learn — How were different parts of the city utilized in 1901? What areas of Victoria functioned as commercial, industrial or residential space? Who worked and lived in city spaces like the one shown in the photograph on the left? [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
To answer these questions, we used the 1901 census of Victoria (available online at the viHistory.ca web site), a 1901 alphabetical directory of Victoria, and a 1902 street index of Victoria (also available online at the viHistory.ca web site).
For this project, we worked in teams comprising three or four students. Each team focused on an area or neighbourhood identified with one of the 1901 census sub-districts of Victoria. Afterwards, team members wrote summary reports describing the social, economic and physical characteristics of their census sub-districts.
Our student research reports have been formatted as web pages.* To read the reports — and learn about Victoria at the start of the twentieth century — click on the image map.
*This research project is also posted on the Victoria's Victoria web site. Victoria's Victoria features web-based historical research by undergraduate students at the Univeristy of Victoria.