Hmmm... Made in the USA

From Wikipedia: "Chancellor Peak is a 3,266-metre (10,715-foot) mountain

summit located in Yoho National Park, in the Canadian Rockies of British Columbia, Canada. Its nearest higher peak is Mount Vaux, 4.0 km (2.5 mi) to the north-northwest. Both are part of the Ottertail Range. Chancellor Peak is a landmark in the Kicking Horse River valley. The mountain was named 1898 to honor Sir John Alexander Boyd (1837–1916), who was Chancellor of the High Court of Justice of the Province of Ontario. The first ascent of Chancellor Peak was made on July 30, 1901 by James Outram, J. Henry Scattergood, and George M. Weed, with Christian Hasler Sr. as guide. Outram wrote of it: "The Chancellor, that mighty pyramid from whose frowning precipices, black and forbidding, loom aloft nigh upon 7,000 feet above the Kicking Horse River cannot fail to impress the traveler with a sense of awe and grandeur, as he approaches eastward from the grim gateway of the lower canyon." The mountain's name became official in 1924 when approved by the Geographical Names Board of Canada."

But that is not why I chose to reflect on this post card. I believe that this post card was printed by the Curt Otto Teich Company. My attention was drawn to the texture of the card. It is a texture invented by and perfected by Curt Otto Teich. The number of the post card (in the bottom right-hand corner)

is also a pattern used by the same company. It tells me that this post card is printed in 1934 (the first "4A") using the "Art Colortone" method (the "H" in the number). The back of the card, however, only hints that this might be the case (MADE IN THE U. S. A.). The carefully chosen words "Distributed by" also lead me to the same conclusion. Byron Harmon was a famous photographer who produced many of his own post cards. I have included many of them in my previous postings.

Next to Impossible

These two post cards are also (like the previous two blog posts) Real Photo Cards printed by Byron Harmon. They look very similar to each other. Both are labelled by Mr. Harmon as "774. Mt. Chancellor." Both show a train coming out of a tunnel or around a corner with Mt. Chancellor in the background.







There are several differences, however. 1) The exposure is different - the bottom post card is overexposed;

2) The title of the post card is in a slightly different location - in the top one the 774 touches the train tracks;

3) The engines are different - the top one has a straight line across the front of the "cow catcher" while the bottom one has a curve in front of the boiler. This last difference is so stark that I wonder if Mr. Harmon wasn't experimenting with some sort of "photo-shopping" with this picture!!

You can see that the engine number on the post card is 5178. I found at this website: http://members.shaw.ca/cprsteam/p1.htm that this was a Mikado type of engine with a 2-8-2 wheel arrangement. It was built in 1912 by the Canadian Pacific Railway.

It was next to impossible to find any information about Mt. Chancellor. What I did find was that Mount Chancellor is a 8,826 feet tall. It is located between the towns of Field and Golden in British Columbia, Canada. It is the 515th highest mountain in British Columbia and the 1,105th highest mountain in Canada. - See more at: http://peakery.com/chancellor-peak-canada/#sthash.n5Ok9Ygg.dpuf

In trying to find information about Mt. Chancellor, I found many other copies of this post card out there for sale. The prices ranged from $2.99 to $5.99 USD.