Welcome to Vancouver Public Library's collection of digitized British Columbia city directories dating from 1860 up to and including 1901. These directories contain an abundance of fascinating information about British Columbian communities, including: detailed street and name listings of individuals and businesses in Vancouver and Victoria; population figures; listings of government offices and officials; operating newspapers; schools; libraries; advertisements; classified directories; specialized industry directories (particularly in the early years); and lists of names and businesses for towns throughout British Columbia. As the directories were updated regularly, they document the growth, development and progress of British Columbia over the years. The information found in these publications can be used to track the history of people's homes, find their ancestors, and research the history of companies and institutions. As well, there are wonderful advertisements and illustrations which provide a fascinating insight into the social norms, fashions and mood prevailing throughout the period.

In the earliest years, from about 1860-1887, the directories also cover communities in the western United States, including California, Idaho, Utah, Montana etc., as well as those in other Pacific Northwest states such as Washington and Oregon.

To search the directories: find the year that you want and click on the title of the directory. Each directory has a table of contents; click on the section that you want to search. As an example, if you want to search Victoria-Names, click on this section. An alphabetical listing will be displayed and you can then click on the appropriate page, e.g. if you want to find the name Harrison, click on the page annotated Har. Viewing options include jpeg (the default image), TIFF (preferable for printing specific page)and PDF format - please note, if you print from PDF you need to indicate the specific page number of the required image (found in the tool bar at the top of the PDF display page), otherwise you will print out all the pages from the section.

A word of caution: there are discrepancies in the directories and some of the listed names can be found to be out of order, so you might have to try several pages.

We are grateful to the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre's BC History Digitization Program for funding this project. We would particularly like to thank the University of British Columbia Library for microfilming the directories and for permitting us to scan from these microfilms.

Please note: Viewing and printing options may vary depending on the browser that you are using. Firefox often works better than Explorer.