PRESENTATION: The Surveying, Mapping and Naming of BC’s Coast

SPEAKER: Ms. Catherine Gilber

BIO: Graduate Student, Department of History, UVic. Catherine Gilbert is a Vancouver Island author, editor, historian, and lecturer, who has written numerous articles about British Columbia history.  Her book Yorke Island and the Uncertain War, defending Canada’s western coast during WWII was published in 2012, and she appears in the Canada Over the Edge series segment about Yorke Island.  Her short fiction was published in an anthology for Northern Vancouver Island authors, and she contributes to the Western Mariner Magazine, Inspired Living and Nauticapedia.ca. Catherine was with the Museum at Campbell River for seven years coordinating promotions and writing a monthly history column, and has been a historical interpreter on boat cruises to BC island destinations. Catherine has completed her first year of a Masters in History at the University of Victoria, where she is focusing on environmental history and Strathcona Provincial Park.

PRESENTATION: Naming the Named: The Surveying, Mapping and Naming of BC’s Coast.

How did all the islands and features around Vancouver Island and the region of Victoria get their names? When Captain George Vancouver came to the west coast in 1792 aboard HMS Discovery, he named many of its geographical features without adopting Indigenous place names. In 1860, Captain George Richards of the Royal Hydrographic Society came to Esquimalt to begin a thorough survey of the coast based on Vancouver’s work. Richards retained many of the Indigenous names we recognize today. Find out more at this fascinating historical presentation.