Before Charles Brandt passed away he asked that the documents in his Hermitage be archived. The Brandt Oyster River Hermitage Society was awarded a Heritage Grant from the Comox Valley Regional District in 2022 to assist with the Archiving work. The materials include a lifetime of correspondence, including letters to family, spiritual colleagues and friends as well as contacts in his paper conservation/restoration and environmental projects. The archive also contains a large number of newspaper articles about Charles as a Priest, Hermit, Paper Conservator, Environmental Spokesperson, Book Binder, Ornithologist, Photographer, Contemplative and Meditator. Charles clipped articles about the activities of his mentors and world events of interest, which shaped his inclusive view of the world. Charles also collected over 2,500 books that represent not only a wide variety of the world’s wisdom traditions, but also texts on birds, paper conservation and restoration, First Nations and many others. As an avid nature photographer he left us with an archive of some 20,000 nature photographs and hundreds of hours of nature videos.

In the world of book and art conservation, Charles Brandt was instrumental in bringing the specialized knowledge from renowned European centres of paper restoration back to North America and, later, introducing technological advances in paper restoration from Eastern United States to Canada. After spending years at Museums Canada, Charles was asked to join the Manitoba Archives where he designed and oversaw the creation of a state of the art document restoration centre. After leaving Winnipeg, Charles set up a conservation lab in his home and continued to preserve paper of all kinds. Some of the more notable restoration projects in which Charles played a major role in his lifetime include:

• 1493 Nuremberg Chronicles
• 1668 Abraham Crowley
• 1688 Milton’s Paradise Lost
• 1838 Audubon’s Birds of America
• 1774 Atlantic Neptune – British Royal Navy’s Nautical Charts of the Eastern North American Seaboard
• 1821 Journals of a Voyage of Discovery of a North West Passage
• The Hudson Bay Archive dating back to the 1600’s at the Archives of Manitoba
• Rudyard ‘s Book of Fortifications belonging to the Citadel in Halifax
• 1912 Watercolors by Francis Rattenbury of the BC Legislative Buildings used to draft architectural drawings – owned by Maltwood Gallery at University of Victoria
• Archives of Paper Currency at the Royal Canadian Mint
• Artwork by Sybil Andrews, Emily Carr, W.J. Philips, and Eric Bergman

Other archival materials highlight a 30 year struggle to bring Pink Salmon back to the Tsolum River. The archive highlights the long journey of lobbying government, failed restoration efforts, many task force and committee meetings, engineering studies, environmental studies of water quality, installation of a cap over the …., and the successful return of Pink Salmon in 2021 to levels that existed before the establishment of the Mt Washington Copper mine. Over one hundred newspaper articles either written by Charles or interviewing Charles demonstrate an incredible persistence and deep love for the natural world that is inspiring.

The archive also includes a vast array of other Vancouver Island environmental projects, such as the preservation of the Oyster River and Strathcona Park against development, where Charles’ voice stood with others who defended the natural world.

Lastly the materials in the Archive map a transformation of Charles Brandt’s sense of self as a result of his exposure to great thinkers and authors such as Teilhard de Chardin, Thomas Berry, Thomas Keating, Aldo Leopold, Bede Griffiths, Eckhart Tolle, The Desert Fathers, the Philokalia, Brian Swimme, Ken Wilber, Richard Rohr, John Cassian, John Main, Thomas Merton and many others.

The website content has been based on a small portion of the archive. The website is searchable by topic, date and material type and includes scanned documents, pictures, links and videos. If researchers are interested in access to a more extensive database they should reach out to us on the contact page.

All of the nature photos included in the archive posts were taken by Charles Brandt. He wanted them to be shared with the public and are available via flickr. https://www.flickr.com/photos/152969625@N06

Our sincerest thanks to the Comox Valley Regional District who made this Archive possible.