NOT a Harmon.

As soon as I pick up these two post cards, I can tell that they were not published by Byron Harmon. The paper is thinner and the finish is glossy.

They are actually published by the Gowan Sutton Company out of Vancouver, British Columbia. Gowan and Sutton were both English by birth but came to Vancouver from two different ways. Gowan came through Manitoba (in 1913) and Sutton came via Ontario (in 1918); they were both photographers.

They formed the F. Gowan Co. on March 17, 1919 (Gowan had 4,000 shares to Sutton's 2,000 shares) and on March 17, 1920 they formed a partnership called the Gowan Sutton Co. Ltd. Frank Gowan sold his shares in the company in 1929 after his wife died. I cannot find if Sutton changed the name of the company after that. Frank Gowan developed a series of post cards for both the Canadian National and the Canadian Pacific Railways.

These two post cards are part of the Canadian Pacific Railway.

The first one tells us that it is on the Canadian Pacific Railway, in fact, it says that this is the "CPR TransCanada Limited near Field, BC." My research tells me that this one of Frank Gowan's photographs. The script is the same as the script on so many other of his photographs. The post card itself is a silver gelatin print.

The second post card is also a silver gelatin print, but this one has been colorized. A bit of green has been added to the picture to let us know that we are in a forest; and a bit of red has been added to the passenger cars, while some green found its way onto the observation car. The title has been put to the bottom of the post card and it is now in block letters. I wonder if this is the result of Mr. Sutton's work after he took full ownership of the company...

They both have a very similar rubber stamp on the back - like Byron Harmon's. It tells us the name of the publisher, that the address goes on the right and the correspondence goes on the left.