Hi everyone!

Sorry I did not blog at the end of the day. I started off searching BC Archives' collections for material on police/court activity and war resistors, and then I went down there to talk to the archivist in person. Unfortunately, they told me there would be numerous legal challenges involved in accessing some of the material. I will report what they said in more detail on Friday, but for now I have a basic list of what is open to us. I then looked at what BC Archives has for education, and found some useful school records, some oral histories with Victoria high alumni, and other material. While I was there, I also looked at the music scene in Victoria during our time period so that we might have some audio clips for the website. BC Archives has concert programs from various musical societies, and piano sheet music about Victoria, by Victoria composers and published in Victoria. If we can't find any recordings, I could always record myself playing it and put the clip on the website.

Then I checked out the legislative library, and talked to the lovely reference librarian about what records pertaining to education and the provincial government are there. I think I have an almost complete list of what public schools were in operation during the time period, based on a masters thesis on microfilm she showed me. Today, I am going to Victoria City Archives first. I was hoping to find school board minutes yesterday, although these may not give us the interesting stories we are hoping to feature, so I will keep looking for other material. I have an appointment with the archivist at St. Michael's. I spoke to her on the phone yesterday, and it sounds like they have great records on the school's veterans. I am going to call all the old private schools, and Victoria High, and talk to them about records.