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History Post-confederation (1867-)

Hobnobbing with a Countess and Other Okanagan Adventures

The Diaries of Alice Barrett Parke, 1891-1900

edited by Jo Fraser Jones

Publisher
UBC Press
Initial publish date
Oct 2001
Category
Post-Confederation (1867-), British Columbia (BC), General
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9780774850100
    Publish Date
    Oct 2007
    List Price
    $125.00
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780774808538
    Publish Date
    May 2002
    List Price
    $34.95
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9780774808521
    Publish Date
    Oct 2001
    List Price
    $95.00

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Description

In 1891, Alice Barrett moved from Port Dover, Ontario, to the Okanagan Valley to keep house for her brother and uncle. She soon married Harold Parke, a former NWMP officer, and spent the next decade recording her experiences in a series of notebooks sent to her Ontario family.

 

Few women’s diaries have survived from that time, and Barrett Parke recalls a period of profound transformation in a region newly opened to white settlement by the railway. She was an astute observer and an exceptional writer, and her diaries provide invaluable insights into work, health, religion, race and gender relations, and women’s lives. On a personal level, her writings show the conflict between her independent spirit and women’s traditional roles. Although wary of the emerging feminism of the time, Alice was co-opted into the “vice-regal circle” of the Countess of Aberdeen, who stayed at nearby Coldstream Ranch, and became the first corresponding secretary of the Vernon chapter of the National Council of Women.

 

Careful editing and additional research to contextualize the social and historical background, as well as biographical details, photos, and maps enhance the reader’s understanding and appreciation of this remarkable woman’s life, and the lives of those around her.

 

Selected as a BC Book for Everybody.

About the author

Contributor Notes

Jo Fraser Jones (editor) lives in Vernon, B.C. She is a contributor to Framing our Past: Canadian Women's History in the Twentieth Century and has published articles on regional history.