Free Spirit

Stories of You, Me and BC

Gerald Truscott

• $39.95s paperback (9780772658708) Add to Cart
• hardcover not available

• Published: 2008
• Subject Listing: Canadian History
• Bibliographic information: 192 pp., 210 illus., 150 in color, DVD, 10.5 x 10.5 in.
• Territorial rights: U.S. rights only
• Distributed for: UBC Press
• Series: Royal British Columbia Museum
• Contents

Highlighted by brilliant photographs, the colourful stories of British Columbia's past leap off the pages of this beautiful book. British Columbia became a colony in 1858, and Free Spirit celebrates 150 years of history with a selection of vignettes about objects from the collective past and the people intimately involved with them.

From BC's first printing press to a gold nugget weighing 1.6 kilograms, from Judge Matthew Begbie's court wig to Eleanor Goddard's 100-year-old teddy bear - if these objects could speak what stories would they tell? Some would answer questions that readers may never have thought to ask: Why is Vancouver called the "City of Bhangra"? How did the Steller's Jay become BC's provincial bird? Where does most of the world's jade come from?

The stories of other objects reveal little-known facts, such as: the first book privately published in BC promoted gold mining on the Fraser River; a spirit guide from beyond the grave helped establish and name the Okanagan town of Naramata; and some of the rarest coins in the world were minted in New Westminster.

In these glimpses of the past, Free Spirit captures the essence of British Columbia and the diversity of its people and landscapes The book comes with a 100-minute DVD collection of seven travelogues, showing areas of the province as they were promoted to tourists in the 1950s and 1960s. These colourful films show BC as it used to be, in the carefree spirit of the mid 20th century.

Gerald Truscott was born and raised in British Columbia, and has spent most of his professional life publishing books, editing and writing for the Royal BC Museum. He has written the text for several museum exhibitions, including the Free Spirit exhibition.