Gold Rush! El Dorado in British Columbia Exhibition

Gold Rush will explore how everything changed during this fevered era, as class and racial barriers were broken down and people seized the extraordinary opportunities that glittered them before.

A killer whale rising from a sea of gold, on a repoussé box with a beaver motif is how Haida artist Bill Reid described the work he would create. It was commissioned by the provincial museum for an exhibit to mark British Columbia’s 100th birthday.

Royal BC Museum

Intangible Heritage is one of the pieces being showcased in the Royal BC Museum’s Gold Rush exhibit opening in May 2015. It was made by B.C. artist Arthur Vickers out of 24-karat gold leaf.

Royal BC Museum

First Nations placer mining on the Thompson River near Lytton, around 1890.

RBCM/BC Archives AA-00131.

by Katie Dahl & Jessica Knapp

The Royal BC Museum will be captivating visitors with a look into the glimmering history of gold this spring. Their new exhibit, Gold Rush! El Dorado in British Columbia, scheduled to open May 13, 2015, will explore the Gold Rush of 1858 that occurred in Fraser Canyon, British Columbia.

It will incorporate tales of heartbreak, adventure, and upheaval that occurred during the 1800s, while showcasing the gold rush of the west. “This is our chance to bring some of these untold, or rarely told, narratives to light,” said Kathryn Bridge, the Royal BC Museum Deputy Director.

Gold Rush! will explore how class and racial boundaries were challenged during the gold rush era as people seized new golden opportunities and how it shaped the B.C. we know today.

Featured items will include pieces loaned from other museums and institutions. “We are receiving about 240 loaned works from 24 lenders,” Bridge said. The loans have come from B.C., California, Australia and Colombia. Bogota Colombia’s Museo del Oro is lending 137 of its works.

One featured item includes the Turnagain Nugget, the largest existing gold nugget weighing in at 1,642 grams.

Visitors will also be able to enjoy an interactive game allowing them to learn the difference between real gold and fool’s gold.

The Royal B.C. Museum announced, its newest addition to the exhibition in March 2015, a 24-karat gold leaf piece called Intangible Heritage, from local British Columbia artist Arthur Vickers, will be on loan to the collection. The piece explores the relationship Vickers has with his First Nation heritage.

Intangible Heritage was made out of recovered purified gold from Germany. The entire piece was made by hand.

The exhibit will run in 2015 from May 13, to October 31, before moving to Ottawa’s Canadian Museum of History and then later to China. To know more aboutthe Gold Rush! El Dorado in British Columbia exhibition listen to this podcast with Dr. Lorne Hammond, Curator of History at the Royal BC Museum.

British Columbia is celebrating the 20th anniversary of a cultural exchange relationship with Guangdong Province, China.

The Royal BC Museum successfully opened its first exhibit in China in March 2015.