
Preemption Document James Degnen, c. 1878
Collections and Research
Archives, Photos and Museum Publications
Artifacts are as varied as the residents of the island
The Museum Archives are located in the Gabriola Museum at 505 South Road, Gabriola Island and are open to the public.
Artifacts are as varied as the residents of the island and include ferry tickets from the 1960s, a dainty china cup that was a treasured possession of an early settler, and a leather oxen yoke used by local farmers. Larger artifacts such as the dismantled foghorns from Entrance Island lighthouse are on display on the Museum grounds.
Archived Photos
The Archives, maintained by a volunteer archivist, include:
- Census records, 1880-1901
- Voters’ lists
- Pre-emptions records 1874-1880
- Family records and genealogies
- Personal Memoirs
- Cemetery records
- School records
- Gabriola business and industrial records
- Newspapers (Flying Shingle, Sounder and Island Times and Sandstone News)
- Maps from late 1800’s
- Photographs from the late 1800’s
- Oral histories provided by early residents of Gabriola
Donations of archival materials are most welcome.
If you wish to visit the Archives, or to donate material, make an appointment with the Archivist.
Before you toss out photographs, letters, emails, maps or pictures, ask yourself if these materials could “tell a story of Gabriola”.
A SOUNDER article, For the Record: Archiving the Past in the Present demonstrates this.
All documents and items donated to the Museum archives are available to the public subject to the BC Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.
Newspaper Articles
Nanaimo Free Press, Gabriola Articles, 1874 – 1894
There never was a Gabriola edition of the Nanaimo Free Press, so far as we know.
We have collected articles about Gabriola and its people from microfilm of the old Free Press and put them together in our own “Gabriola Editions” – a mixture of shipping news and farm news, births, marriages and deaths, celebrations and disasters, courtships and court cases – to give the flavour of the times. Nine Gabriola editions have been created so far.
- May, 1874 – Gabriola described.
- Jan-July, 1879 – Politics, school report, a sharp salesman, and shipping news.
- Oct-Dec, 1881 – Taxes, farming tips, shipwrecks, and entertainment.
- Jan-Feb, 1883 – Disobedient children, school report, and the telegraph.
- July-Aug, 1885 – Brush fires, biology, and another teacher married.
- January, 1886 – Death in the mines, building roads, and a silver wedding anniversary.
- October, 1888 – Farm news, county court, and several perilous journeys.
- June, 1889 – Elections, looking for coal, and kicked by a horse.
- July-Sep, 1891 – Wealth on Texada, two inquests, and a Gabriola pic-nic.
Nanaimo Free Press, Other Excerpts
Documents and Studies
Voters Lists
- 1874 voters list
- 1894 voters list
- 1898 voters list
- 1903 voters list
- 1906 voters list
- 1956 voters list
Pre-emption Documents:
Lists of deaths 1873 – 1976
- Doe N.A., Gabriola’s fractures — their origins, pp.3–12, SHALE 20, April 2009
- Doe N.A., The geology of Gabriola’s diatomaceous earth, pp.31–36, SHALE 24, June 2010
- Doe, N.A., Gabriola’s shape — including surmises, pp.29–40, SHALE 20, April 2009
- Doe N.A., Gabriola’s submarine-fan formations, pp.15–34, SHALE 7, January 2004
- Doe N.A., How Gabriola came to be, pp.5–14, SHALE 7, January 2004
- Doe, N.A., The Malaspina Galleries, pp.53–56, SHALE 9, August 2004
- Doe, N.A., The orientation of fractures on Gabriola, pp.41–55, SHALE 20, April 2009
- Doe N.A., Sandstone and SHALE—Gabriola’s origins, pp.26–35, SHALE 1, November 2000
- Doe, N.A., Stress on Gabriola, pp.13–28, SHALE 20, April 2009
- Doe N.A., Terra firma? GPS measurements of land movements around Gabriola, pp.56–60, SHALE 20, April 2009
Gabriola’s Climate and Environmental Past
- Doe N.A., Gabriola’s changing climate and its effect on groundwater, pp.7–18, SHALE 23, March 2010
- Doe N.A., Smith P., Gabriola’s trees—a brief history, pp.27–33, SHALE 2, March 2001
- Earle S., Ups and downs of Gabriola—sea level changes, pp.14–20, SHALE 5, December 2002
- Pearson J., Gabriola warming—a changing climate?, pp.30–34, SHALE 5, December 2002
The Coast Salish
- Anonymous, Making Some Petroglyphs Petroglyph Park, Gabriola Museum (web site), n.d.
- Doe N.A., A most unusual petroglyph, pp.25–32, SHALE 10, January 2005
- Doe N.A., A small inland midden DgRw-251 at False Narrows, pp.13–15, SHALE 25, March 2011
- Doe, N.A., Additions and corrections to dates for archaeological sites around False Narrows, pp.43–52, SHALE 21, July 2009
- Doe N.A., Alignment and geometry of petroglyphs at DgRw229, pp.24–32, SHALE 17, September 2007
- Doe N.A., Alignment of the petroglyphs at sites DgRw224 and DgRw234, pp.33–40, SHALE 17, September 2007
- Doe N.A., Observations for the curious at petroglyph sites DgRw193, DgRw198, and DgRw201, pp.49–55, SHALE 17, September 2007
- Doe, N.A., Observing the winter solstice at DgRw228, pp.41–44, SHALE 17, September 2007
- Doe N.A., Paleoastronomy at petroglyph site DgRw230, pp.45–48, SHALE 17, September 2007
- Doe N.A., Petroglyph studies at the cemetery, pp.56–60, SHALE 17, September 2007
- Doe, N.A., Petroglyphs and equinoxes, pp.10–14, SHALE 14, September 2006
- Doe N.A., Stars in stone—petroglyphs at DgRw230, pp.7–17, SHALE 18, April 2008
- Littlefield L., Coast Salish names on Gabriola, pp.21–26, SHALE 2, March 2001
- Littlefield L., The Snunéymuxw village at False Narrows, pp.3–11, SHALE 1, November 2000
Spanish, Russians and English Before 1860
- Doe N.A., Alcalá Galiano’s sketchmaps of Gabriola, pp.12–21, SHALE 1, November 2000
- Doe N.A., Around the island in 1853, pp.35–40, SHALE 1, November 2000
- Doe N.A., George Vancouver visits Gabriola, pp.2–9, SHALE 14, September 2006
- Doe N.A., Malaspina Galleries—what’s in a name, pp.12–15, SHALE 8, June 2004
- Doe N.A., The Origin of Gabriola’s name, pp.7–38,SHALE 13, June 2006
- Doe N.A., A Russian map of Gabriola—1849, pp.7–17, SHALE 3, January 2002
- Doe N.A., Simon Gaviola’s family connections, pp. 10-18, SHALE 26, November 2011
- Doe N.A., The tabla of Toba Inlet, pp.22–36, SHALE 11, May 2005
- Humphrey B., Malaspina’s lost gallery, pp.3–23, SHALE 10, January 2005
European Settlement in the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century
- Barman J., Island sanctuaries—early mixed-race settlement on Gabriola and nearby coastal islands, pp.5–14, SHALE 2, March 2001
- Doe, N.A., EDITORIAL: Curved reality and its effect on straight lives. White settler and Coast Salish histories, SHALE 4, June 2002
- Poulton L., An old fence—how Indian reserves came to Gabriola, pp.24–27, SHALE 5, December 2002
The Growth of Gabriola’s Infrastructure
- Doe N.A., Charting Gabriola — the survey of HMS Egeria, 1904,v pp.38–48, SHALE 22, January 2010
- Gehlbach J., Gabriola’s ambulance service — the first 25 years, 1969-94, pp.3–31, SHALE 21, July 2009
Places
- Anonymous Gabriola Island Memorial Cairn War Monuments of Canada web site, n.d.
- Bulic, Ivan The Flat Top Islands of Silva Bayfirst published in the Flying Shingle, day, month, 20–
- Bulic, Ivan and Joyce White Mudge Islandfirst published in the Flying Shingle, day, month, 20–
- Bulic, Ivan and Joyce White Pat Burns Avenuefirst published in the Flying Shingle, day, month, 20–
- Bulic, Ivan Westgyle Rd: A bit of old Edinburgh on the south end of Gabriolafirst published in the Flying Shingle, day, month, 20–
- Gabriolore.ca Elder Cedars14 Nov. 2010
- Gabriolore.ca Folklife Village1 Dec. 2011
- Gabriolore.ca Gossip Corner17 Aug. 2010
- Gabriolore.ca Hippy HollowApril 1, 2011
- Gabriolore.ca Orlebar Point31 Aug. 2010
- Gabriolore.ca Petroglyph Way8 Jan. 2010
- Gabriolore.ca Rockwood26 July 2010
- Gabriolore.ca Retirement Village23 June 2011
- Gabriolore.ca Sir William and St. Catherine8 Aug. 2010
- Gabriolore.ca The ‘T & T’16 Sept. 2010
- White, Joyce and Ivan Bulic Joyce Lokwood Community Parkfirst published in the Flying Shingle, day, month, 20–
- White, Joyce and Ivan Bulic Thrasher Rockfirst published in the Flying Shingle, day, month, 20–
- White, Joyce Tin Can Alleyfirst published in the Flying Shingle, day, month, 20–
Gabriola’s Industrial Past
- Gehlbach J., Gabriola’s dimension-stone quarry, pp.10–24, SHALE 19, November 2008
- Gehlbach J., Gabriola’s industrial past—the brickyard pp.3–35, SHALE 15, May 2007
- Gehlbach J., Gabriola’s millstone quarry, pp.25–41, SHALE 19, November 2008
- Gehlbach J., Gabriola’s sandstone quarry — the earliest days, pp.36–42, SHALE 21, July 2009
- Gehlbach J., Gabriolans and the sandstone quarries,pp.42–52, SHALE 19, November 2008
- Gehlbach J., The origins of quarrying for sandstone on Gabriola,pp.3–9, SHALE 19, November 2008
- Gehlbach J., Unearthing the past — the diatomaceous earth mine on Gabriola, pp.11–30, SHALE 24, June 2010
- Gehlbach J., Withey’s shipyard in Silva Bay, pp.3–24, SHALE 22, January 2010
- Wilson, Stevie,YOU SHOULD KNOW: About The History Of “The Gabriola Mansion” In The West End Scout Magazine, 11 June 2012
Gabriola Society
- Reeve P., Japanese-Canadians in Silva Bay, 1918-42, pp.3–8, SHALE 25, March 2011
- Reeve P., Page’s marina—sixty years ago, pp.17–31, SHALE 6, April 2003
Gabriola’s Cultural Past
- Reeve P., Malcolm Lowry on Gabriola, pp.3–6, SHALE 18, April 2008
- Disposing of the dead : a shell midden cemetery in British Columbia’s Gulf of Georgia region”UBC 2009
- Everything becomes island : Gulf Islands writing and the construction of regionUBC 1995
- Gender, class and community: the history of Sne-nay-muxw women’s employment UBC 1995
- Prehistoric Northwest Coast art : a stylistic analysis of the archaeological recordUBC 2010
- The Islands Trust : an institutional experiment in the management of scarce natural and social resourcesUBC 1980
- The island trust concept : a proposed institutional arrangement to implement a policy of controlled development for the Gulf Islands of British ColumbiaUBC 1974
- Visions cast on stone : a stylistic analysis of the petroglyphs of Gabriola Island, B.C.UBC 2003
Theses and Dissertations Online – SFU
- British Columbia’s Islands Trust on the local government continuum : administrative agency or local self-government?SFU 1994
- Interpretations of sustainability : worldviews of environmental activists of the Save Georgia Strait Alliance of British ColumbiaSFU 1993
- Topophobia, topophilia, and Malcolm Lowry : environmental perspectives in selected writingSFU 1992
Museum Publications
The Museum has published the following books which are for sale in the gift shop: