Who is Olive Allen Biller and Why are her Diaries Important?

Olive Allen Biller wrote a collection of diaries, that are now kept in the UBC rare Books and Special Collections, dating from 1890-1934. Together, they display her artistic talents while reflecting on much of her life in a time period with a prevalent patriarchal societal structure

An Introduction to Olive Allen Biller and Diaries in the 19th Century

Olive Allen Biller is a artist and children's book writer, born in England and immigrated to British Columbia in 1912. Her early records consist of diaries she kept from family trips to Trebarfoot, England. Her earlier diaries resemble characteristics of a scrapbook as they collect much of her drawings, poems, short stories and photographs from her family vacations to Trebarfoot. According to Allen Biller, diaries were not common and difficult to maintain.

Allen Biller has is known in the world of literature for being a children's book writer and illustrator. However, in our archival research, we noticed that the work in her diaries were truly amazing pieces of writing and drawings. Thus, this begged the question, why were her diaries not published? After reading further through these diaries we noticed a few patterns of defiance of a patriarchal system in society. Thereafter, we researched Allen Biller's background and concluded that perhaps she was living in a time period where diaries were not widely accepted to be pieces of artwork and worthy of publishing. Or perhaps, her diaries subtly spoke about the issues of a patriarchal system that was difficult to speak out about in this early 19th century. Thus, we finally concluded, that Olive Allen Biller's diaries were silenced by a patriarchal system that did not support an art form indirectly rebelling against societal norms.