Colonial Despatches

1130 new page-images (in three different sizes) from the following volume have been added to the Colonial Despatches collection: CO 60 Vol 38 (British Columbia 1870 Despatches to London, January to May). These will now be linked into the transcription documents.

1346 new page-images (in three different sizes) from the following volume have been added to the Colonial Despatches collection: CO 60 Vol 37 (British Columbia 1869 Public offices and Miscellaneous). These will now be linked into the transcription documents.

428 new page-images (in three different sizes) from the following volume have been added to the Colonial Despatches collection: RG7 G8C Vol 13 (British Columbia 1866 Public Despatches from London). These will now be linked into the transcription documents.

1079 new page-images (in three different sizes) from the following volume have been added to the Colonial Despatches collection: CO 60, Vol 34 (British Columbia 1868 Public Offices and Miscellaneous). These will now be linked into the transcription documents.

773 new page-images (in three different sizes) from the following volume have been added to the Colonial Despatches collection: CO 305, Vol 30 (Vancouver Island 1866-1867 Public Offices and Miscellaneous). These will now be linked into the transcription documents.

300 new page-images (in three different sizes) from the following volumes have been added to the Colonial Despatches collection: CO 398, Vol 6 (BC 1869 (July) to 1871 (August) Entry Books of Correspondence: Letters from Secretary of State. Offices and Individuals); CO 398, Vol 7 (BC 1871 (February) to 1871 (July) Entry Books of Correspondence: Letters from Secretary of State. Despatches). These will now be linked into the transcription documents.

560 new page-images (in three different sizes) from the following volume have been added to the Colonial Despatches collection: CO 398, Vol 5 (BC 1867 (April) to 1871 (January) Entry Books of Correspondence: Letters from Secretary of State. Despatches.). These will now be linked into the transcription documents.

488 new page-images (in three different sizes) from the following volume have been added to the Colonial Despatches collection: CO 398, Vol 4 (BC 1866 (June) to 1869 (July) Entry Books of Correspondence: Letters from Secretary of State, Offices and Individuals). These will now be linked into the transcription documents.

A total of 1079 new page-images (in three different sizes) from the following volume has been added to the Colonial Despatches collection: CO 60 Vol 32 (BC 1868 Despatches to London January to June). These will now be linked into the transcription documents.

A total of 2825 new page-images (in three different sizes) from the following volumes have been added to the Colonial Despatches collection: CO 60 Vol 29 (BC 1867 Despatches to London September to December); CO 60 Vol 30 (BC 1867 Public Offices part 1 and Miscellaneous); and CO 60 Vol 31 (BC 1867 Public Offices part 1 and Miscellaneous Individuals). These will now be linked into the transcription documents.

886 new page-images (in three different sizes) from the following volume have been added to the Colonial Despatches collection: CO 60 Vol 26 (BC 1866 Public Offices and Miscellaneous). These will now be linked into the transcription documents.

1032 new page-images (in three different sizes) from the following volume have been added to the Colonial Despatches collection: CO 60 Vol 25 (BC 1866 Despatches to London July to December). These will now be linked into the transcription documents.

694 new page-images (in three different sizes) from the following volume have been added to the Colonial Despatches collection: CO 60 Vol 24 (BC 1866 Despatches to London, January to June). These will now be linked into the transcription documents.

520 new page-images (in three different sizes) from the following volume have been added to the Colonial Despatches collection: RG7 G8C Vol 12 (BC 1865 Despatches from London). These will now be linked into the transcription documents.

Colonial Office class 305 volume 27 page-images, covering Public Offices and Miscellaneous correspondence from 1865, are now available on the Colonial Despatches site. They can be accessed through the Manuscript images page. There are 836 page-images in this set.

Colonial Office class 60 volume 21 page-images, covering Despatches to London from 1865 (January to May), are now available on the Colonial Despatches site. They can be accessed through the Manuscript images page. There are 1235 page-images in this set.

Colonial Office class 305 volume 25 page-images, covering Despatches to London from 1865 (Jan-June), are now available on the Colonial Despatches site. They can be accessed through the Manuscript images page.

The Colonial Despatches project is pleased to announce that all documents for the year 1864 have now been published for general access on the website. Starting here you can read the entire correspondence from images of the original document pages or annotated transcriptions.

1012 new page-images (in three different sizes) from the following volume have been added to the Colonial Despatches collection: CO 60 Vol 19 (BC 1864 Despatches to London July to December). These will now be linked into the transcription documents.

824 new page-images (in three different sizes) from the following volume have been added to the Colonial Despatches collection: CO 60 Vol 18 (BC 1864 Despatches to London January to June). These will now be linked into the transcription documents.

500 new page-images (in three different sizes) from the following volume have been added to the Colonial Despatches collection: RG7 G8C Vol 11 (BC 1864 Despatches from London). These will now be linked into the transcription documents.

466 new page-images (in three different sizes) from the following volume have been added to the Colonial Despatches collection: RG7 G8C Vol 4 (VI 1864 Despatches from London). These will now be linked into the transcription documents.

670 new page-images (in three different sizes) from the following volume have been added to the Colonial Despatches collection: CO 305, Vol 24 (VI 1864 Public Offices and Miscellaneous). These will now be linked into the transcription documents.

1085 new page-images (in three different sizes) from the following volume have been added to the Colonial Despatches collection: CO 305, Vol 23 (VI 1864 Volume 2, August to December: Despatches to London). These will now be linked into the transcription documents.

837 new page-images (in three different sizes) from the following volume have been added to the Colonial Despatches collection: CO 305, Vol 22 (VI 1864 Volume 1, January to July: Despatches to London). These will now be linked into the transcription documents.

220 new page-images (in three different sizes) from the following volume have been added to the Colonial Despatches collection: CO 381, Vol 18 (BC 1858-1871 Entry Books Series II: Commissions, Instructions, Petitions, Grants, Orders in Council, Warrants, Letters etc.) These will now be linked into the transcription documents.

1047 new page-images (in three different sizes) from the following volume have been added to the Colonial Despatches collection:

• CO 60, Vol 17 (BC 1863 Public Offices and Miscellaneous)

These will now be linked into the transcription documents.

A total of 3255 page-images (in three different sizes) from the following volumes have been added to the Colonial Despatches collection:

• CO 305 Vol 20: VI 1863 Despatches (900 images)
• CO 305 Vol 21: VI 1863 Public Offices and Miscellaneous (757 images)
• CO 60 Vol 15: BC 1863 Despatches to London January to May (777 images)
• CO 60 Vol 16: BC 1863 Despatches to London June to December (821 images)

These will now be linked into the transcription documents.

1038 page images for CO 6 Vol 36 (in three different sizes) have been added to the collection. These cover British North America 1862; Exploration 1857-1860; and Captain Palliser's general report and journal These will now be linked into the transcription documents.

138 page images for CO 6 Vol 35 (in three different sizes) have been added to the collection. These cover the British Columbia 1862: Fisheries Commission and Maps. These will now be linked into the transcription documents.

1120 page images for CO 6 Vol 34 (in three different sizes) have been added to the collection. These cover the British Columbia 1862: Public Offices and Individuals. These will now be linked into the transcription documents.

1445 page images for CO 305 Vol 19 (in three different sizes) have been added to the collection. These cover the British Columbia 1862: Despatches, Public Offices and Miscellaneous. These will now be linked into the transcription documents.

750 page images for RG7 G8C Vol 10 (in three different sizes) have been added to the collection. These cover the British Columbia 1862-63: Despatches from London. These will now be linked into the transcription documents.

1309 page images for CO 60 Vol 13 (in three different sizes) have been added to the collection. These cover the British Columbia 1862: Despatches to London. These will now be linked into the transcription documents.

829 page images for CO 6 Vol 33 (in three different sizes) have been added to the collection. These cover the British North America 1861: Public Offices and Individuals documents. These will now be linked into the transcription documents.

cover the BC 1861-1867 Entry Books of Correspondence: Letters from Secretary of State and Despatches. These will now be linked into the transcription documents.

After some discussion and a request from a user, we've decided to make our encoding guidelines document available on the site. It is, of course, in a state of continuous evolution, so we'll refresh the PDF periodically. A link has been added to the Development page.

The Colonial Despatches project would like to welcome our two new team members, Alison Malis (doing a Directed Reading in the History Department) and Brigitte Dreger-Smylie (Directed Reading/Professional Writing Program). We also welcome back Theo Biggs, previously doing Directed Reading but now as a workstudy student, entering his third year with us. There should be lots of activity over the coming semester!

466 page images for CO 60 Vol 11 (in three different sizes) have been added to the collection. These cover the 1861 Despatches to London Sept-Dec. These will now be linked into the transcription documents.

588 page images for CO 60 Vol 12 (in three different sizes) have been added to the collection. These cover the 1861 Public Offices and Miscellaneous correspondence. These will now be linked into the transcription documents.

767 page images for CO 60 Vol 10 (in three different sizes) have been added to the collection. These cover the 1861 Despatched from London, January to August. These will now be linked into the transcription documents.

910 page images for CO 305 Vol 18 (in three different sizes) have been added to the collection. These cover the 1861 Vancouver Island Public Offices and Miscellaneous Correspondence. These will now be linked into the transcription documents.

The complete collection of 1208 page images for CO 305 Vol 17 (in three different sizes) have been added to the collection. These cover the 1861 Vancouver Island Despatches to London. These will now be linked into the transcription documents.

Four new correspondence documents from 1859 have been added to the correspondence, transcribed by Marion Massey and marked up by Petria Arienzale. The total document count is now 7151.

Thanks to some excellent work from Petria Arienzale, abstracts have now been added for all 1854 documents. We now have abstracts for all years between 1846 and 1854.

Several thousand OAI-PMH records have been regenerated to take account of updates to despatches files and other XML documents in the collection. The process currently takes a long time, so it's only done every few months. OAI metadata records for the collection are now up to date.

The Colonial Despatches project has been added to the DH Commons project list. We are hoping through this to attract collaborators from other institutions who may be interested in researching, writing, and proofreading.

Today the Colonial Despatches Project welcomes its fourth directed reading student, Petria Arienzale. She'll start work tomorrow on some of the biographies, and over the next few weeks she'll be learning about XML, TEI, oXygen and a host of other components of our work.

The complete collection of 712 page images for RG7 G8C Vol 9 (in three different sizes) have been added to the collection. These cover the second part of 1860-61 BC Despatches from London. We originally had only the first 25 of these images.

361 new images (in three different sizes) have been added to the collection. These cover the second part of BC 1859 Despatches from London.

Over 400 new images (in three different sizes) have been added to the collection. These cover the BC 1859 Despatches from London.

439 new images (in three different sizes) have been added to the collection. These cover the Vancouver Island 1862-63 Despatches from London.

719 new images (in three different sizes) have been added to the collection. These cover the Vancouver Island 1859-61 Despatches from London.

144 new images (in three different sizes) have been added to the collection. These cover the Public Accounts for Vancouver Island, 1857-1860.

526 new images (in three different sizes) have been added to the collection. These cover the Entrybooks of Correspondence for BC, 1858-1861. They are currently being linked into the transcription documents.

A further 1348 page-images have been added to the manuscript image browser, covering Vancouver Island Public Offices and Miscellaneous correspondence, 1860. Transcriptions are now being linked into these images.

A page has been added to the site explaining the OAI-PMH metadata interface and how it works, with links to example queries returning XML responses.

A further 941 page-images have been added to the manuscript image browser, covering Despatches from Vancouver Island to London, 1860. Transcriptions are now being linked into these images.

A further 1298 page-images have been added to the manuscript image browser, covering British North America 1860 Public Offices and Individuals. Transcriptions are now being linked into these images.

A further 1422 page-images have been added to the manuscript image browser, covering British Columbia 1859 Public Offices Part 2, and Miscellaneous. Transcriptions are now being linked into these images.

A further 1250 page-images have been added to the manuscript image browser, covering British North America 1859 Public Offices/Hudson's Bay Company. Transcriptions are now being linked into these images.

A further 1108 page-images have been added to the manuscript image browser, covering BC 1859 Despatches to London and Public Offices Part 1. Transcriptions are now being linked into these images.

A further 983 page-images have been added to the manuscript image browser, covering British North America correspondence from 1859 (Individuals). Transcriptions are now being linked into these images. CO 6 vol 30 is close to completion too.

A further 817 page-images have been added to the manuscript image browser, covering British North America correspondence from 1858 (Individuals, N-Z). Transcriptions are now being linked into these images.

A further 814 page-images have been added to the manuscript image browser, covering British North America correspondence from 1858 (Individuals, F-M). Transcriptions are now being linked into these images.

This is volume 3 of the 1858 material, covering British North America 1858 offices: General and Individuals A-E. There are 1421 new page-images.

A further 1,123 page-images have been added to the manuscript image browser, covering British North America correspondence from 1858. Transcriptions are now being linked into these images and the CO 6 25 set.

1230 new page-images have been added to the site from Colonial Office Series 6 Vol 25 (British North America 1858 correspondence).

Colonial Office volume 60/4 page images have now been processed and are available on the website. These cover BC despatches to London from 1859.

Colonial Office class 305 volume 13 page-images, covering Public Offices correspondence from 1859, are now available on the Colonial Despatches site. They can be accessed through the Manuscript images page.

CO 305, Volume 12 has been uploaded to the Manuscript Images page. This collection contains 1859 correspondence relevant to Vancouver Island, under the headings of Admiralty, Board of Trade, Council Office, Emigration Office, and Foreign Office. In the coming months, these images will be linked to their respective digital transcriptions.

CO 305, Volume 11 contains correspondence for the year 1859. You can access these images, along with all others posted to date, from our Manuscript Images page. In the coming months we will link these images to their respective digital transcriptions.

We have made available two separate RSS feeds for the Colonial Despatches site. One is for announcements only; it can be accessed from an icon in the footer of every page. The other is for all the project blog postings, and this is available on the Development page (click on About on the main menu).

Scans from CO 305/11 are now accessible in the image browser.

The Globe and Mail has a great story on the Colonial Despatches project today.

The Colonial Despatches project was officially launched at the Maritime Museum in downtown Victoria yesterday (November 3). An invited audience of about 60 people attended the event, which took place in the old court room. The Vancouver Island Brewery sponsored the reception. Elizabeth Grove-White was MC, and introduced speakers including Greg Evans from the Maritime Museum, Professors John Lutz, James Hendrickson (the original begetter of the project back in the 1980s), and Hamar Foster. Martin Holmes gave a brief demonstration of the site, and UVic's Dean of Humanities, Andrew Rippin, gave the closing address.

If you're a member of the project and you'd like to be able to participate in this blog, let me know and I'll add you as a user.