The Benton Family, 1887

Archival records, such as historical photographs, can provide a starting point for some interesting historical enquiries. Consider the picture below, for example. It's a photograph of Mrs. Ann Elizabeth Benton and her seven children. It was taken in a photograph's studio in Nanaimo, around Christmas 1887 [click on the picture to enlarge it].

Mrs. Benton's husband, Edwin, is absent from this photograph: He was dead when the picture was taken. He was one of 148 miners who were killed on 3 May 1887 in a devasting explosion in the Number One Mine on the Esplanade in Nanaimo. Ann Benton was one of forty-six Nanaimo women who became widows on May 3rd. Nearly one hundred and fifty children lost their fathers that day.

The Benton family had emigrated from Yorkshire a few years earlier and this formal picture was probably intended for family in "the Old Country." The picture invites a great many questions.

How did Mrs. Benton manage on the small monthly "relief" payments she received from the mining company? Did the oldest daughter — who stares stoically ahead in this picture — assume more responsibilities for her younger siblings? What became of the children? What school did they attend and what kind of education did they receive?

This picture is about the hazards of the mining industry in Nanaimo and about labour history; it is a picture about family structures and childhood; it is a picture about Victorian social conventions. It's a picture that encourages innovative historical enquiries. It's the kind of picture students might interpret in a History course at Vancouver Island University.

The Benton family photograph was provided by the Nanaimo Community Archives, an important partner in our History programme.