Taeja Liu, Visitor Experience Assistant, Point Ellice House Museum & Gardens
August, 18 2022
This summer, through my work as a summer student at Point Ellice House, I began transcribing some of the diaries of Kathleen O’Reilly (1867–1945); socialite, artist, gardener, and world traveler. I was curious about what Kathleen wrote, probably because all history nerds are a bit nosy – otherwise we wouldn’t be so obsessed with tangling ourselves up in the threads of the past. For those of you similarly intrigued, I’ll share some of the ‘hot gossip’ I’ve read directly from young Kathleen’s diary, but first let me tell you how this transcription project came about.
In 1975, Inez and John O’Reilly sold Point Ellice House to the Province of British Columbia. Most objects remained at the heritage house, while most paper records went to the Provincial Archives. At the archives, original O’Reilly documents were put onto microfilm – teeny-tiny copies on space-saving reels. To transcribe Kathleen’s diaries, I’ve been working from PDF scans of the microfilm. It’s not easy to start with handwritten primary sources and end with accessible, digitally searchable transcriptions, but all the work we put in goes a long way to improving our research and storytelling at Point Ellice House.
In 2020, the Point Ellice House Volunteer Transcription Project created the pandemic-friendly task of tackling a lifetime of O’Reilly letters and diaries. Thanks to these efforts, our project received an Honourable Mention for the BC Historical Federation’s Cultural Resource Accessibility Award. We were also able to include information found in the O’Reilly diaries and correspondence in our new exhibit, The Animals of Point Ellice House.
Transcribing Kathleen’s diaries allows us to expand on who she was. Her entries note her social circle, artistic habits, garden harvests, and travel log. These details create deeper stories at Point Ellice House. Of course, it is also important to read between the lines to understand how the O’Reillys were positioned in dynamic structures of race, class, gender, and ability in Victoria and abroad. Although Kathleen’s diary entries are sometimes relatable, her childhood experience was not universal.
At ages 10 and 12 in 1878 and 1880 respectively, Kathleen wrote about school, church, family dinners, going into downtown Victoria, and hanging out with friends much like young people might today. Like most kids, Kathleen either had to walk or have adults to drive her around (though by “drive,” Kathleen meant horse-drawn carriage). On Tuesday, February 10, 1880 she wrote, “I walk to school by myself I was late but walk fast not so late as I expected.” A relatable entry!
Kathleen was concerned with doing well in school – many of her 10 year-old entries are concerned with class rankings. On Monday, September 18, 1878 she wrote, “C. K. O’R. 1st in clas[s]. K. Langley 2nd K. Rosco 3rd Maud 4th. Milly 5th.” Her classmates at Angela College have surnames Victoria locals may recognize. For example, Katherine Roscoe was born at Ross Bay Villa, another historic house in the city. At 12 years-old, Kathleen had access to an extensive social circle. Even her sporadic 1880 diary reads like a “who’s who” of late 19th century Victoria.
Whereas diaries from Kathleen’s childhood are often blank, Kathleen’s diary at age 17 contains a little more for the curious reader. She opens up her 1885 diary at sea, chronicling her journey from England back to Canada accompanied by the “McD” family (we are still researching who the “McD”s were). Kathleen explains that they stopped in Ireland before setting out across the Atlantic for Québec via the Montmorency River, then west by rail. During this time, the Canadian Pacific Railway was nearly complete, although Kathleen and the McDs mainly traveled via American rail after departing from Toronto.
Kathleen’s longer entries emphasize her mobility as the daughter of a wealthy Anglo-Irish family. Her age and gender necessitated traveling companions – Mr. McD periodically reported to her father Peter – but overall, Kathleen’s mobility gave her more choices and opportunities to travel, study, and rest than many others her age. Kathleen freely sailed home from England – reading, eating, and visiting passengers in multiple cabins. Meanwhile, travel was not so easy for the working class or people racialized non-white. For example, the racist Chinese Immigration Act of 1885 imposed a $50 head tax on all migrants from China. In contrast, that same year Kathleen chose “extra luggage” for a cost of $71 on her train ride home. She described seeing only “the tints on the trees” through the train window, perhaps uninterested in the changes taking place in the Indigenous territories she traveled through.
Kathleen had the privilege of writing her own story, but whose records and recollections are selected to be valued and preserved cannot be ignored. As I transcribed these diaries I was reminded that sometimes what Kathleen didn’t write is just as interesting as what she did.
This fall, we will be working to get Kathleen’s 1878, 1880, and 1885 diaries on the Point Ellice House website for you to read. If you are a nosy history nerd like myself, consider getting involved with the Volunteer Transcription Project, or check out what has already been transcribed on our historical resource page.