Finding Workers in the City Teaching Urban and Labour History with the Online Resources of ViHistory
Patrick Dunae (History, Malaspina and University of Victoria)
and
John Lutz (History, University of Victoria)
PO Box 3045, Victoria BC V8W 3P4
jlutz@uvic.ca
and
dunae@MALA.BC.CA
Teaching any kind of history is enlivened if we can turn students into researchers and get them to answer historical questions for themselves. How far did people travel to work in the 19th century and how was that affected by the introduction of street cars? Did workers tend to find themselves in homogenous work places with co-religionists of the same ethnic background or in melting pot sweat shops? Did they own their own homes or live in boarding houses? Who did they prefer to live with? Which workers made the most money? Which female workers made the most? Scholars have engaged some of these questions with large projects over the years but thanks to the viHistory project, now these kinds of questions can be asked and answered by students. The complete digitization of the federal census for the city of Victoria in 1881, 1891 and 1901 along with a digitization of the complete city directories for the census years allows a rare window into the lives of workers in Victorian Canada. No other city in Canada has this full range of information about workers and employers available on line. This presentation answers the questions posed above and demonstrates how teachers can easily turn the ViHistory into a laboratory in their own classes on labour, urban and social history of Canada. A/V Requirements: Live internet Connection and LCD projector desirable.