Canada's Victorian Oil Town: The Transformation of Petrolia from Resource Town into a Victorian Community

by Christina Burr

Overview

Departing from traditional historiography focused on the economic role of resource development, Canada's Victorian Oil Town incorporates an understanding of the connections between science and technology, nation and imperialism, and cultural nuances of community-building. Burr looks at the cultural importance of place and how collective identity was nurtured in the community. She also illustrates how the image of Petrolia as Canada's Victorian Oil Town has been used since the 1970s to develop a thriving tourist industry in the region. Interdisciplinary in scope, Canada's Victorian Oil Town draws from the history of imperialism, science, resource development, local history, gender studies, and cultural geography.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780773581142
Publisher:	McGill-Queens University Press
Publication date:	10/11/2006
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	6 MB

About the Author

Christina Burr is the author of Spreading the Light: Work and Labour Reform in Late Nineteenth-Century Toronto and associate professor, history, University of Windsor.

Table of Contents

Figures
Tables
Acknowledgments     ix
Introduction: Colonization, Culture, and the Making of Canada's Victorian Oil Town     3
"Oil Mania": Colonial Land Policy, Land Speculators, and Settlement in Enniskillen Township, 1830s-60s     16
"Oil Smellers" and "Professors": Science, Colonization, and the Oil Boom in Mid-Nineteenth-Century Enniskillen Township     54
The Petrolia Discovery and the Making of an Oil Resource Community     85
A Respectable Victorian Town: Public Space, Voluntary Associations, and the Creation of a Culture of Refined Sociability     123
"Some Adventures of the Boys": Enniskillen Township's "Foreign Drillers," Imperialism, and Colonial Discourse     158
"Canada's Victorian Oil Town": History, Public Memory, and Community     189
Conclusion     237
Notes     257
Bibliography     273
Index     289