Hybrid in More Ways than One

We have gone back to the Rocky Mountains in British Columbia, Canada.

This is a picture of a passenger train in the Fraser River Valley. One can see the river in the valley on the right hand side of the post card. There isn’t enough detail to be able to say anything about the engine itself. There is only one engine and it looks like it is pulling a baggage car and three passenger cars. It is on quite the steep slope and the rocks on the slope hint that this part of the railroad was dynamited to be able to get the two parts of Canada united by the transcontinental railroad.

This is a hybrid card. The front of the card looks very much like those printed before March 1, 1907. The printer kindly left a bit of room for the sender to put a short message to the right side of the picture before posting the card.

But, when we look at the back, we see that it was actually printed after March 1, 1907. There is space on the left of the card for the message and the right hand side of the card clearly states: “THIS SPACE FOR ADDRESS ONLY.” It is just under the words Post Card at the top. While the card was printed in Canada, the Canadians could not escape the influence of the American postal system.

Middlesex county Woburn was incorporated in 1642. It can be found near Boston in Middlesex County almost on the eastern coast of Massachusetts. It is near Horn Pond, which is one of the sources of the Mystic River. That is where this card was posted, and yet it has a Canadian 2 cent stamp on it. That makes it again a hybrid: Canadian card and stamp mailed in the USA. Amelia sent this message to her friend, Celina: “Hello Celina, Am enjoying myself very much. This is some country. Love, Amelia.” Celina lived in Montague City, Massachusetts. It is found in the northwest part of the state in Franklin County. It is a very young town, being incorporated in 1754.

The post card was published and printed by Warwick Bro’s. & Rutter, Limited out of Toronto, Ontario in Canada. The firm of Warwick Bros & Rutter published over 7,024 picture postcards during what is now called “The Golden Age of Postcards” (1901-1913).

For some years, the firm made a specialty of the production of picture post cards. It was the first Canadian firm to enter the field with “Made in Canada” coloured cards, leading the way in three color and four color printing processes and making available the highest class of color printing at a popular price.

Source: “Warwick Bros & Rutter Limited. The Story of a Business 1848-1923"

Huff and Puff and Puff !

Some of my earlier blog postings discussed the various issues that the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) had to face as it was building the Transcontinental Railroad. The area near Field, British Columbia was particularly nasty! This post card helps to illustrate just how bad it was.

There are three steam engines pushing what looks like six passenger cars up the hill toward the summit of the Rocky Mountains just east of Field, British Columbia. If you look carefully, in the lower right hand corner of the picture is a short section of track that goes up a hill to nowhere in particular. CPR built several of these little spurs so that trains that lost control would have an emergency pull out to keep them from careening down the mountain side into the Kicking Horse River.


The picture on the front of this post card was taken by Richard H. Trueman.

He also printed the post card. Trueman first arrived in British Columbia in 1889. He had begun his career as a photographer in Brampton, Ontario, (where he was born in 1856) in the early 1880s at about the time replacement of the cumbersome wet-plate process by faster, commercially available dry-plates was revolutionizing photography, making outdoor photography an economic and practical reality. After working along the Canadian Pacific Railway main line for a year, Trueman and his partner, Norman Caple, set up headquarters in Vancouver. For the next four years the firm of Trueman & Caple worked between Winnipeg and the coast, specializing in mountain and railway views, ranch scenes and Indians.2 This specialty continued for Trueman even after the partnership dissolved and R. H. Trueman & Company of Vancouver was established in 1894. Although the company was primarily a portraiture business, the landscape and documentary sidelines remained Trueman's avocation. For the next sixteen years, until his death in 1911, he travelled the rails throughout the province, skilfully recording life and landscape.

This post card was mailed on August 24, 1909. It is over 100 years old.

One Heck of a Bridge!

The picture on the front of this “real photograph” post card is of the Lethbridge Viaduct in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada. The writing on the front of the post card informs us that the length of the bridge is “ONE MILE & 47 FEET” long and that the height is “307 FEET”. A quick glance at Wikipedia concurs that this in, indeed, a very large bridge.

The website tells us that the bridge, built by 100 men, was a replacement to the original route that was built in order to complete the Canadian Transcontinental Railroad to British Columbia in a reasonable amount of time. This bridge replaced at least four other bridges, shortened the route by 8.5 kilometers and reduced the grade from 1.2 percent to .4 percent!

The website also tells us that it is the largest railway structure in Canada and the largest of its type in the world. Construction began in 1907 and was completed two years later.

The picture was taken by Arthur Rafton-Canning. According to the Images Canada Web site description of the contributing Sir Alexander Galt Museum and Archives, "Arthur Rafton-Canning established the British & Colonial Photographic Company at Sixth Street South in Lethbridge in 1907, and operated it until 1913 when he moved out of southern Alberta."

Rafton-Canning retired to White Rock, B.C. his wife, Annie Elizabeth (Parsons) Canning, whom he married in 1885 in England, died in 1949, age 83. In White Rock, Mr. Rafton-Canning was an amateur photographer. He was also a member of the Canadian Legion, Branch No. 8, and the first president of the White Rock Board of Trade. At the time of his death on December 15, 1952 at age 87 or 88, Arthur Rafton-Canning was residing in his home called "Fort McMurray" on Donald Avenue.

Happy Fourth of July

In honor of the 4th of July, I have laid out all of the post cards in my collection that celebrate the bicentennial that happened way back in 1976. There are 32 post cards that show how the various railway lines and private companies celebrated the bicentennial. None of these cards have been sent through the post office.

I see that the image overflows onto my side bars. But, I don't know how to correct that.

The oldest two are actually not celebrating the bicentennial. They are from 1948 and they are showing what is called the Freedom Train. The copyright is from 1948 by The American Heritage Foundation.

I would like to point out the train in the far right column, last row. It is the "Preamble Express". It preceded the actual 1976 Freedom Train on the tracks in order to check the security on the tracks. I would hate to be a passenger on that train if I knew what its purpose was.

Anyway.... Happy Fourth of July.