Robert Burns in Princeton BC: An Exploration

This paper addresses the history of Burns Suppers held from the turn of the last century to the end of the Second World War in the interior town of Princeton, Canada, and its satellite communities. Princeton is a mining community in the interior plateau of British Columbia, founded in the mid nineteenth century as a farming and ranching area. It began to flourish as a town in about 1900 with the triple discoveries of gold, coal, and copper in the surrounding areas. This paper traces the evolution of the Burns Supper in Princeton in relation to constructions of national identity.