Greetings from British Columbia

A Journey in Vintage Postcards

By (author): Fred Thirkell, Bob Scullion
ISBN 9781894974639
Softcover | Publication Date: April 9, 2009
Book Dimensions: 11 in x 8 in
176 Pages
$26.95 CAD

About the Book

One hundred years ago, British Columbia was a resource-rich province greeting new arrivals from all over the world who’d come to seek their fortunes. Greetings from British Columbia portrays their “land of dreams” as it once was through the very postcards these pioneers may have mailed home to friends and family. These early picture postcards cost only a penny back then, but their historical importance makes them priceless today. Browsing the pages of Greetings from British Columbia is a trip back in time to when Port Essington was a thriving cannery town, Bowen Island was a tourist’s delight, and stagecoaches lined Kelowna’s main street. Collectively defining the state of affairs in BC a century ago, each one of the images featured in this book has a story to tell.

About the Author(s)

Fred Thirkell (1930–2009) was born and educated in Vancouver. He obtained his Licentiate in Theology from Anglican Theological College in 1954, and worked as a minister in communities throughout BC and Nova Scotia. He also worked as program coordinator for the Anglican diocese of the Kootenays in Nelson, BC, and as a social worker for the Children’s Aid Society in Vancouver. Fred was keenly interested in history, and he got hooked on collecting vintage postcards while living in Nova Scotia. He later began matching these rare images he had collected with mini-histories. He and Bob Scullion published their first book featuring postcards in 1996.