A Sickness No One Can Cure: The 1862 Smallpox Epidemic

On March 20th at 7:30PM visit restored 1865 historic house museum Ross Bay Villa for a discussion of a critical event 163 years in the past with speaker Dr. John Lutz. On Wednesday March 12 1862 the paddle-wheeler SS Brother Jonathan arrived in Victoria from San Francisco. Along with the disembarking passengers crew and unloaded cargo the Brother Jonathan also brought to the city one of the most virulent diseases of the mid nineteenth century; smallpox.

By the end of April the disease had spread from the settler population into the Indigenous encampments that enveloped the town. From Victoria the disease spread up the coast and into the interior of British Columbia and by summer of 1863 tens of thousands of Indigenous People had died of the disease.

Was it deliberately spread or did the settlers do everything possible to arrest its spread?  Were there dedicated humanitarian efforts to help the afflicted or were they driven away against their will? New research on the epidemic offers surprising answers to these and other questions.

Dr. John Lutz is a Professor of History at the University of Victoria and has researched the British Columbia smallpox epidemic of 1862-63. In this illustrated lecture Dr. Lutz will present some of his surprising findings about this catastrophic event in the shared history of European settlers and First Nations residents of pre–Confederation British Columbia.

Tickets are $10 and must be booked ahead of time at https://tinyurl.com/3v7trp23 as seating is limited. All proceeds support the Ross Bay Villa Society the volunteer based society that runs and owns Ross Bay Villa.

Host or Publisher Ross Bay Villa Historic House Museum