Historic Collection from the Klondike Gold Rush Gifted to University of British Columbia in $2.5 Million Donation, Collection Will Be Made Available Online

From the University of British Columbia

UBC alumnus and Canadian telecommunications icon, Philip B. Lind, CM, has donated $2.5 million to UBC. This gift is comprised of the Phil Lind Klondike Gold Rush Collection, an unparalleled rare book and archival collection, dating from the Klondike Gold Rush (1894–1904), and financial support to ensure it is preserved and made available to the public at the UBC Library, where it will support research and learning.

The Department of Canadian Heritage’s Canadian Cultural Property Export Review Board (CCPERB) recently designated the collection as a cultural property of outstanding significance.

The collection includes books, maps, letters and photos collected by Lind, whose grandfather, Johnny Lind, was a trailblazer who carved out success as a prospector, arriving in the Yukon two years before the big Klondike strike in 1896 that ignited the gold rush, and he operated and co-owned several claims on Klondike rivers and creeks. Lind says that he made collecting archival materials from this period a real passion of his over the past 50 years.

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To facilitate scholarly and public access to the materials, the library will be making the collection available online through UBC Library Open Collections. A preview of featured collection items is available to view now in a curated photo gallery.

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“UBC Library is ideally suited to preserve and provide access to the rare archival and book material found in the Phil Lind Klondike Gold Rush Collection,” says Dr. Susan E. Parker, university librarian. “We’re excited to digitize this collection and make it available to everyone, through the library’s Open Collections. The Lind Collection will be an essential new source for historical research and scholarship across Canada.”

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