Religion, Family, and Community in Victorian Canada: The Colbys of Carrollcroft

While we know a great deal about the role religion played in institutions in Victorian Canada, its place in home and family life has remained relatively unexplored. Drawing on a treasure trove of family papers and material culture, Marguerite Van Die depicts religion as "lived experience" in a portrait of a Protestant middle-class family in Quebec's Eastern Townships. Van Die, a sympathetic and perceptive observer and a gifted and deft interpreter, describes the lives of the Colbys of Carrollcroft - members of Canada's emerging economic elite who were active in the local community, public life, and politics - drawing attention to the links connecting domestic religion and private life, business concerns, and social change in one family's life over three generations.