Library's Local History Committee Chair, Donovan Unrah and 2014 Jeanne Clarke Local History Service Award winner, Ramona Rose       photo courtesy Prince George Public Library

Prince George, BC – A reception was held at the Prince George Public Library last night to honour this year's recipients of the Jeanne Clark Memorial Local History Awards…

The awards have been handed out every year since 1985 to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the field of Northern History.  Clarke was a long time city resident and a founding member of the local history committee at the library.

This year's Service Award was presented to Ramona Rose, the head of Archives and Special Collections at the University of Northern BC.  In selecting Rose, the Library's Board of Trustees noted her many contributions towards the preservation and promotion of regional history over the past 20 years.  Rose was the champion behind the conversion of the Northern BC Archives & Special Collection into a category 'A' facility, one of only 52 archives in the country able to house materials of national worth.

Author, Peggy Brock, was selected as the 2014 recipient of the Publication Award, for her book, 'The Many Voyages of Arthur Wellington Clah: A Tsimshian Man on the Pacific Northwest Coast'.  Based on Wellington Clah's daily diaries kept over a 50-year period, Brock recounts rare, first-hand stories of indigenous people's encounters with colonialism.

Brock was unable to attend last night's reception, as she is currently living in Australia.