Welcome

The Oliver & District Heritage Society is a not-for-profit organization governed by a Board of Directors. We preserve and present the history of Oliver BC; Canada's Wine Capital, and surrounding district through exhibits, educational programming, special events, heritage walking tours, and more.

Museum

Location: 474 School Avenue, Oliver BC

Hours of Operation:

Summer: June - August Tues - Sat 10am-4pm

Fall/Winter/Spring: September - May Tues - Sat 1pm-4pm

Admission by donation

Contact: 250-689-6655

The Museum houses our exhibits and collection of historic artefacts and the Archives is home to our research library and archival collection.

One Hundred X One Hundred

x̌cəcikst X x̌cəcikst Project

The year 2021 marked 100 years of the Oliver community. the Town was established on and shaped by the ancestral, traditional, and unceded territory of the syilx Okanagan Nation, whose history stretches back 10,000 years.  

The One Hundred X One Hundred / x̌cəcikst X x̌cəcikst Project provided an opportunity to explore our roots and share wisdom to build a stronger shared community, a deeper connection to the land, and to grow our future together for generations to come. Learn more about the event via the link below.

Archives

Location: 430 Fairview Rd, Oliver BC

Hours of Operation: 

Open Year-Round Tues - Fri 10am-1pm

Contact: 250-689-6677

The ODHS is committed to ensuring visitor safety at all times.

Read our 2024 Fall/winter LAmplighter edition

Read the 2024 Fall and Winter edition here

News

Want to be informed?

Subscribe to The Lamplighter or our email list to stay informed about exciting heritage news and events in the Oliver area.

You can unsubscribe hassle-free at any time. 

Fairview Townsite Heritage Management Plan

The Oliver and District Heritage Society are working towards the creation of a Heritage Management Plan. The ODHS recently signed a Heritage Services Agreement to manage the Fairview Townsite with a plan to enhance and conserve the environment, preserve the natural landscape and native plants at Fairview. The plan also includes improved public education and interpretation of the stories of indigenous Peoples, mining and ranching that took place in the area.

The ODHS was involved in the Southern BC Historic Highway 3 Museum Tour and we had a great turn-out with many visitors coming to the ODHS. The response was great all across Southern BC as well.

Thank you to everyone who participated, we hope you enjoyed the experience and learned more about BC’s history. The ODHS hopes to participate again in 2025.

Events

The ODHS participates in various community events in Oliver, where we provide information on what we do as a Society, the programs and services we offer, the heritage exhibits we display on and off-site and much more. We have our Heritage Booth at Roots and Fruits, Festival of the Grape and Music in the Park. we will continue to be a part of community events into 2025.

The Oliver and District Heritage Society held our Annual General Meeting on June 5, 2024.

Everyone enjoyed the talk from our guest speaker, Arvin Bensler who spoke about the historic irrigation canal. Congratulations to everyone re-elected to our board as well as the new members. We look forward to working with everyone on all our exciting projects.

Thank you to everyone who attended!

2024 AGM AGENDA

Donations

Artefact and Archival

 The ODHS accepts artefact and archival donations related to our mandate and collecting area that allow us to interpret the history of Oliver and surrounding regions. We are always grateful when people consider donating material to the Museum and Archives.

 Please keep in mind the following before you donate an item.

 The ODHS follows a Collections Policy (you can read more by clicking this link) and artefacts or archival material must fit within our policy. A few central points in our policy are listed below.

 a) We have limited storage facilities and cannot take everything we are offered, owing to conservation issues and the need to protect our existing collection.

 b) The ODHS implements top quality museum and archival industry standards when it comes to storage and preservation of our collection. By only accepting artefacts and archival material that relate to our mandate, we can better allocate resources to ensure quality preservation.

 c) The ODHS collection defines the Society and influences our educational programming, exhibitions, community outreach and research library. As a result, it is important to only accept donations that meet the requirements of our Collections Policy.

 d) After a donated item is accepted into our collection, there is legal paperwork to complete and then the item is catalogued and accessioned into our collection according to the order of donations. If an item is abandoned and the legal donor cannot be located after a 90-day period, the ODHS has the right to deal with the item in any manner it deems appropriate.

 e) All items accepted into our collections are quarantined for a period. This enables us to eliminate the threat posed to our collection by pests, and allows us to inspect each item for harmful material and follow appropriate conservation standards when it comes to cleaning. Afterwards staff formally catalogue and accession the item and enter its details into our database. The item will be properly housed and stored in one of our storage rooms. The item may be brought out for an exhibit, research purposes or placed in our educational programming collection.

 f) De-accessioning :- Sometimes an item in our collection is deemed inappropriate, as it no longer fits our mandate. We de-accession objects that have been donated to us and accepted in error, in that it transpires they originate from a place outside of our geographical collecting area. Items that fall into this category do not represent the history of Oliver and surrounding regions. The ODHS may also have several duplicates of the same object in our collection, and may therefore consider de-accessioning. We have a formal policy when it comes to de-accessioning, and we are always transparent in this process. Upon donating an item to the ODHS, there are de-accessioning options in the paperwork we give to the donor and they can select what they want to occur.

 g) Re-patriation- The ODHS fully supports initiatives to re-patriate objects connected to cultural, ethnic, or religious groups. In 2021 we signed the BC Museum Association’s Re-patriation Call to Action. The ODHS Collections Policy states that we do not accept human or ancestral remains, and we do not collect these items. You can read more about re-patriation in the ODHS Collections Policy here.

 Monetary Donations

 The ODHS is always very grateful to receive monetary donations. Giving to the ODHS helps us maintain our artefact and archival collection, provide educational programming, events and outreach work, research and exhibitions. For donations of $20 or more we will provide you with a tax receipt.