About This Collection

History is Where You Stand

A Communities Connect Project
Based on materials in the Calverley Collection

prettypic4The Calverley Collection represents half a lifetime of dedicated work by the late Dorthea Horton Calverley of Dawson Creek, British Columbia. Mrs. Calverley set out to bring together, in an organized fashion, as much material (books, pamphlets, newspaper clippings, magazine articles and original pieces of writing) as she could find to illuminate the history of her beloved Peace River country. The heart of her work is contained in 30 binders entitled History Is Where You Stand. The School District’s Resource Centre made a major contribution to the organization of the materials in the early 1970’s. The Calverley Collection is now the property of the City of Dawson Creek and is housed in a secure location within the Dawson Creek Municipal Public Library.

In its entirety, the Calverley Collection consists of more than 250 books, 30 large binders full of documents and ten archival boxes — all full of materials related to the natural and human history of the Peace River area. Among the documents in the collection are indexed transcripts of interviews with more than 100 old-timers, dictionaries of the Cree and Beaver languages and databases relating to the homestead era in the district.

As a source of information about the northeastern part of British Columbia, the Calverley Collection is unique. Many of the books and documents contained in it are no longer in print and, if available at all, can be found only in widely scattered locations. Mrs. Calverley’s own writings occur nowhere else and materials donated by local groups are irreplaceable.

Approximately 500 articles selected from the Calverley Collection and supplemented by articles written more recently by local authors are now being transferred to the Internet. Additional information will be added over the next few years. Long term plans call for the addition of photographs and audio clips to the mix as time and funding become available.

The project, under the Communities Connect initiative, was made possible by a grant from the Province of British Columbia and has received the enthusiastic and material support of School District #59 (Peace River South) and the Peace Region Internet Society. The City of Dawson Creek and other community groups such as the South Peace Historical Society, the local branch of the Retired Teachers’ Association of BC and the Friends of the Dawson Creek Library have also supported the project.

There will never be a shortage of work for us to do!

  • Launch of the Web Site: March 17, 1999
  • Block News covers the Official Launch
  • Not an Old-Timer but part of our history (by Mark Nielsen)

Project Director: Mary Toma, Librarian (Dawson Creek Public Library)

General Editor: Gerry Clare