Search Results - Research Collections - Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies

Scope & Content: Fonds consists of visual and texual material pertaining to the Canadian Pacific Railway and its holdings. Visual material conists of two series. Series I: lantern slides, Series II: prints. Textual material consists of two series. Series I: organizational records, Series II: the 1942 film "Canadian…

GMD: Photograph; Transparency; Lantern slide; Print; Organization record; Textual record

Accession Number: 303, 304, 625, 1471, 1086, 1544, 3288, 3502, 6740, 7071, 2014.8366, 2021.18

GMD: Photograph; Transparency; Lantern slide; Print; Organization record; Textual record

Physical Description: 69 b&w lantern slides, 5 cm of textual records, ca. 309 prints : b&w ; 27.9 x 20.3 cm or smaller

Scope & Content: Fonds consists of visual and texual material pertaining to the Canadian Pacific Railway and its holdings. Visual material conists of two series. Series I: lantern slides, Series II: prints. Textual material consists of two series. Series I: organizational records, Series II: the 1942 film "Canadian Pacific" screenplay and associated documents. Visual material includes black and white lantern slides and black and white prints depicting various scenes pertaining to travelling on the Canadian Pacific Railway and depict dining rooms, scnes involving trains and mountains, farming scenes and fields, people in train cars, various cities and towns, figures in natural landscapes, horses and horseback riding, mountains, waterfalls, skiing, ships, CP hotels, and other grand buildings [across Canada] such as Notre Dame Cathedral in Montreal. Textual material includes paper reports [some compiled by Canadian Pacific Hotels Architectural Engineer Ed Steel] detailing various construction and/or renovation projects for hotels, lodges, tea houses, bugalow camps, huts, and backcountry lodges throughout the Canadian Rockies as well as records pertaining to CP hotels in the Canadian Rockies, and the screenplay for "Canadian Pacific."

Notes: Slides were stored in rectangular wood box with leather handle on top, and metal handle at one end. White label that says “Lyon & Turnbull 432 04 February 2009” on lid of the box. Old, peeling, and stained label on top under handle, illegible. Faded, peeling labels on front, some words legible: “from the Canadian Pacific…” 2 stained and water damaged labels detached from box appear to be English shipping labels.“10” stamped in black on both ends of box. Stamped in black on rear of box: “Canadian Pacific Rly Co. 62 to 65 Charing Cross, London, S.W. 1. “3” engraved on upper rim of box. Box is divided into 3 sections with removable wood separators, small pieces of felt line 2 sections of the box.

Subject Access: Buildings; Buildings and facilities; Camps; Construction; Environment; Huts; Tourism; Trains; Transportation

Geographic Access: Banff National Park; Jasper National Park; Yoho National Park; Glacier; Alberta; British Columbia; Canada

Content Details: Prints and some textual records absorbed from old records V121 and M48. Lantern slides donated to the Whyte Museum by Dr. William and Mrs. Wynn Bensen. The slides were purchased by the Bensens from Lyon and Turnbull in Scotland.

This material is presented as originally created; it may contain outdated cultural descriptions and potentially offensive content. Read more.

Scope & Content: Series consists of 14 lantern slides [ca.1900-ca.1925]. Slides are views along the Canadian Pacific Railway.

14 images

History / Biographical: The Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) was officially formed in Februray, 1881, to construct a railroad that would link the eastern provinces with British Columbia, a key component of the Canadian Confederation of 1867. Headed by William C. Van Horne as General Manager, the railroad arrived in the Canadian Rockies in 1883 and a siding was established just east of present-day Banff. When railroad workers discovered a natural hot spring on the south side of the Bow River, Van Horne ordered the construction of a hotel that would house visitors brought in by train to visit the springs. Construction of the Banff Springs Hotel finished in 1888 and joined a handful of CPR hotels throughout the Rocky and Selkirk Mountain ranges. The popularity of the hot springs and surrounding area led to the formation of a national park and to the town of Banff. After construction of the railway had completed, the CPR continued to survey and document the Rocky Mountains alongside federal agencies like the Department of the Interior and private outfitters. Utilizing coloured lantern slides the CPR was able to showcase the mountains as both tourist and settlement destinations. Magic lantern shows of these slides could be used for administrative purposes by the company to showcase land holdings and investments or in public shows as advertisements of the new railway.