Have you explored the past lately?

Have you explored Points to the Past lately? 

 Points to the Past, the website that makes nearly 200 million pages of historical content freely accessible to all residents of BC and Yukon,  has recently been updated.

The updates include:

•  A new home page with single search box
• Collections viewable as a group or in subgroups by category (e.g. Law and Government)
• Mobile-friendly, responsive design
• A new, eye-catching logo

Members of the TWU community,  researchers, local historians, and the greater public across BC and Yukon will all find Points to the Past a useful resource. Searchable primary source materials include maps, photographs, newspapers, manuscripts, pamphlets, poems, sermons, and much more.  

Researchers are free to explore a vast range of resources through Points to the Past, including Eighteenth Century and Nineteenth Century Collections Online, esteemed periodicals such as the Economist and the Financial Times, and digitized materials from the Smithsonian Institution.

Collections include:

• 17th & 18th Century Burney Collection Newspapers. The largest single collection of period English news media

• Indigenous Peoples of North America A diverse, appealing search enables intelligent inquiry into culture and heritage.

• Picture Post Historical Archive The pioneering photojournalism newspaper covered social and political issues

• Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers Cover-to-cover digitized newspapers with advanced searching capabilities.

• Slavery & Anti-Slavery: A Transnational Archive The largest project of its kind covers the subject from a global perspective

• Sabin Americana Over 6 million pages from Joseph Sabin’s books, pamphlets, serials and other documents.

• The Times Literary Supplement Historical Archive An essential companion for studying literary activity and critical opinion makers.

• U.S. Declassified Documents Online Offers access to more than 750,000 pages of government documents

Gale Primary Sources uses geo-authentication, meaning anyone in BC or Yukon with an Internet-connected device can access these resources with no need to log in or authenticate.

 Points to the Past is available thanks to a unique agreement established between Gale and the University of Victoria Libraries, University of British Columbia Library, and Simon Fraser University Library.