“In the Empire She Loved So Well”

Imperial Legitimacies and the Writing of The Pioneer Women of Vancouver Island (1928)

Abstract

In 1928, the Women’s Canadian Club of Victoria (WCCV) contracted N. De Bertrand Lugrin to write The Pioneer Women of Vancouver Island, one of the first feminist histories of British Columbia. Despite this distinction, the work has received relatively little scholarly attention, with its authorship frequently misattributed to other members of the Lugrin family. This article resituates the Club-sponsored book within the canon of Canadian women’s early historiography, using the Club’s archival records and Lugrin’s writings to argue that the WCCV sought to legitimize white settler women’s roles as nation-builders by infusing their historical actions with imperial importance. Memorializing dozens of stories of settler women, The Pioneer Women of Vancouver Island espoused certain qualities and values held by successful ‘pioneers’ that could inspire a contemporary generation to build a progressive future. Left out of this telling of the past (and the Club’s version of the future), however, were the mixed-race women who could threaten the constructed image of imperial unity. Almost a century after the WCCV’s publication, iterations on Lugrin’s mythologized ‘pioneer’ women theme continue to echo in histories of Vancouver Island. This discussion of the original book and its context reveals the theme’s origins within the intersection of feminism and imperialism in 1920s British Columbia.