General Archives | Advance with Courage: Lord and Lady Aberdeen in the Okanagan Valley

Book Cover of Lady Aberdeen’s 1893 “Through Canada with a Kodak”

This is the book cover of Lady Aberdeen’s 1893, Through Canada with a Kodak. The book was published in London by Simpkin Marshall Hamilton Kent & Company.

Travelling by Wagon, 1890s

Travel by horse and wagon between the Okanagan Mission and the Coldstream Ranch was long and could be challenging in the 1890s.

Portrait of William Cornelius Van Horne, n.d.

Sir William Van Horne became president of the Canadian Pacific Railway (C.P.R.) in 1888. He is best known for overseeing the major construction of the first Canadian transcontinental […]

Proposed House for the Aberdeens at Rattlesnake Point, 1895

William Van Horne gave the Aberdeens a sketch for a proposed new house at Rattlesnake Point. The design was of a wood and shingle structure, dominated by a […]

Guisachan House after Rehabilitation, 2015

The Cameron family lived in Guisachan House until it was sold to be subdivided. Paddy Cameron kept a life-lease on the house and the remaining seven acres until […]

Reception for the Aberdeens at Vernon, c.1894

Whenever Lord and Lady Aberdeen arrived or left the Vernon train station, there were always lots of people waiting to either welcome the famous family or see them […]

Hops, Coldstream Ranch, n.d.

Hops were grown to help with expenses while the Aberdeens were waiting for the fruit trees to mature.

Coldstream Ranch Packinghouse, 1905

The packinghouse was built on the Coldstream Ranch in the 1890s. The building, although its use has changed, still exists today.

Aberdeen Jam Factory in Vernon, 1912

The 1892 jam factory is the one-storey building with a high stack to the left of the Vernon Flour Mill and S.C. Smith’s Sawmill. “The jam-factory which H.E. […]

Welcome Arch for the Aberdeens’ Visit, 1890s

Vernon’s residents decorated the main street, Barnard Avenue, with a Welcome to Vernon arch, trees and banners. This was to welcome Lord and Lady Aberdeen to Vernon when they visited […]

Guisachan Farm Hop Fields, c.1892

Guisachan Farm’s hop fields taken by photographer Ernest Brown, c. 1892.

Coldstream Ranch Hop Fields, c.1900

Young hop fields at Coldstream Ranch, with three men with horse teams walking the edge of the field.