When Canadian geographer Cole Harris created the Slocan History Series, he had a local audience deliberately in mind. Printed as short, accessible booklets for residents and visitors of the Slocan Valley in British Columbia, the publications invite readers to reflect on the region’s early settler-colonial and industrial past.
Now, thanks to a collaboration between UBC Library and the Harris family, the full series is available online for anyone to download from cIRcle, the university’s open access digital repository.
The Slocan Valley through stories and scholarship
Dr. Richard Colebrook (Cole) Harris (1936-2022) was a geographer and faculty member in UBC’s Department of Geography, who retired in 2001 as a Professor Emeritus. His research focused on Canadian historical geography, the geographic patterns of early Canada, and the far-reaching impacts of settler colonialism.
A prodigious scholarly writer throughout his career, Harris authored and co-authored several books and many influential essays over the course of five decades. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1982, and an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2004.
A photo from Boom Days in the Slocan, The Slocan History Series, Booklet 1, Harris, J. C., & Harris, Cole, 2014. “First house in Three Forks, 1892.” Royal BC Museum, BC Archives.
The Slocan History Series was a project that Harris took up during this retirement. The first two booklets in the series are detailed first-hand accounts of life in Slocan during the 1880s to early 1900s, written by Harris’ grandfather Joseph Colebrook Harris in 1944, and edited and prefaced by Cole Harris.
Boom Days in the Slocan and Beginnings of the Bosun Ranch chronicle Joseph Colebrook Harris’ life as an early settler in the Slocan Valley during the Slocan mining rush. The seven other booklets in the series consider issues of colonialism, through scholarly articles, adapted and made more accessible to a non-academic audience.
A family-initiated project
Making the Slocan History Series available digitally through cIRcle began with a simple inquiry, says Amber Saundry, Digital Repository Librarian at UBC Library.
Dr. Douglas Harris, a Professor in UBC’s Peter A. Allard School of Law, reached out to cIRcle with an idea to widen access and preserve his father’s booklet series. Although physical copies of the booklets were already held in the library’s collection, access was limited.
Douglas Harris and his mother, Dr. Muriel Harris, an Associate Professor Emerita in the UBC Department of Medical Genetics, were interested in making the series more widely available. “I was really concerned about whether they’d be available in the future,” says Muriel Harris. “So how can they be safe and available to people?”
“Having a permanent digital location was really attractive,” adds Douglas Harris. “[The booklets] are going to be available long-term for anybody, including local or distant audiences.”
A photo from Early New Denver, The Slocan History Series, Booklet 6, von Krogh, Hennin, & Harris, Cole, 2017. “Bertha Angrignon feeding her chickens, New Denver.” K. Angrignon Collection.
Local history with broad appeal
Rooted in the Slocan Valley, the booklets explore a wide range of topics, offering perspectives relevant to researchers and community members interested in British Columbia history, geography, and environmental change.
“You also don’t need to be an expert to get a lot out of the material,” adds Saundry. “There’s a nice balance of visuals, and the content is not dense, which opens up the audience. It’s not primarily for academics.”
“His language is accessible, but it’s also… meaningful to academic audiences and relevant and accessible to a general public,” says Douglas Harris. “That’s not easy to do — but Dad was able to do it.”
For UBC Library, the project reflects a broader commitment to amplifying locally created scholarship and making it accessible to the public.
“I really want to recognize the [Harris] family and how they brought this project to the library,” says Saundry. “This is what I love about the work that we do, extending the reach of local history that’s been created by our UBC community and has these numerous intersections across UBC and the province.”
The Slocan History Series demonstrates how meaningful collections sometimes arrive fully formed—carefully prepared, thoughtfully contextualized, and offered with generosity.
