History of the Okanagan comes alive

Cover of the 1969 annual report of the Okanagan Historical Society

The history of the Okanagan Valley since 1926 is now available to researchers and genealogists, thanks to UBC’s Okanagan Library and UBC Library’s Digital Initiatives unit.

Nearly 70 volumes of the Okanagan Historical Society’s annual reports were recently digitized – featuring stories and pictures of families, individuals, businesses and events that define life in the Okanagan Valley.

The Okanagan History is one of the longest, continually published historical periodicals in British Columbia. The annual 240-page publication covers a large geographic area and includes input from branch members including Armstrong-Enderby, Kelowna, Oliver-Osoyoos, Penticton, Salmon Arm, the Similkameen, Summerland and Vernon.

The reports have been used for teaching and learning for decades, from physical geography to cultural studies. The digital collection features 15,600 pages, dating from 1926 to the present (the most recent years of issues are embargoed).

“The content that has been made publicly available through this joint initiative between the Okanagan Historical Society and UBC Library will be a tremendous benefit to not only our UBC students, but to all researchers who take an interest in the fascinating history of the Okanagan Valley,” says Heather Berringer, Deputy Chief Librarian at UBC’s Okanagan Library. “We are incredibly pleased to have been able to support digitization efforts that bring our community to the world.”

The collection is now available online in UBC Library’s digital collections, but an official launch celebrating the digitization of the OHS Reports will be held on Saturday, September 28 from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. at the Kelowna Branch of the Okanagan Regional Library. For more information on the launch, contact laura.thorne@ubc.ca.

For questions about the project, contact Bronwen Sprout, Digital Initiatives Coordinator, at bronwen.sprout@ubc.ca.

For more information on the Okanagan Historical Society, please visit its website.