New exhibition highlights role of mail, rail and retail 
in Canadian history

Gatineau, Quebec, November 20, 2003 — The Canadian Postal Museum of the Canadian Museum of Civilization announced today the opening of Mail, Rail and Retail: Connecting Canadians. This is the first exhibition to explore in depth the roles that communication, transportation and commerce played in the development of modern Canada — and the far-reaching impact that mail, rail and retail services have had on the lives of Canadians. The Canadian Postal Museum developed this exhibition in partnership with Canada Post, Canadian Pacific Railway and the Hudson’s Bay Company.

“We cannot underestimate the challenge posed by Canada’s vast geography,” said Dr. Victor Rabinovitch, President and CEO of the Canadian Museum of Civilization Corporation. “Private industry and public services have served as a link between regions and as an engine for the formation of the country. In many ways, modern Canada is the product of the combined ingenuity of these sectors,” he said.  

Mail, Rail and Retail features 150 artifacts, many on public display for the first time. They illustrate how Canada’s postal service, rail transport and retail commerce helped to shape the nation we live in today. The artifacts also show the interdependence of the rail and postal networks and the retail sales industry, and illustrate how the three sectors ensured each other’s success.

The exhibition highlights the railway’s adaptations for dealing with ever-increasing volumes of mail and for providing the fast delivery demanded by both the postal service and the growing retail sales industry. Visitors will learn about the special rail cars that transported millions of dollars’ worth of fragile silk from Vancouver to eastern markets from 1886 until the mid-1930s. They will explore the world of illustrated mail-order catalogues that enabled anyone with mail service or a nearby railway station to buy the kind of goods found in big-city stores.

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Mail, Rail and Retail also dramatizes how railways opened the West for settlement. The exhibition eloquently recounts the crucial role that all three sectors played in the lives of new immigrants to Canada.

Oral history interviews explore the exhibition’s major themes, and special educational kits are available to enrich children’s experience of the exhibition.

Mail, Rail and Retail: Connecting Canadians will be on display at the Canadian Postal Museum of the Canadian Museum of Civilization from November 21, 2003 to November 29, 2004. It will then travel across the country. The exhibition is sponsored by Canada Post, Canadian Pacific Railway and the Hudson’s Bay Company.

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  Media Information:

Mail, Rail and Retail: Connecting Canadians

This exhibition tells the fascinating story of how mail, rail and retail services developed into crucial communication, transportation and commercial networks across Canada’s vast expanse. Working together, these three sectors contributed greatly to the country we live in today.

Mail by Rail

Starting in1854, rail was used for the transport of mail, packages, gifts and moneybags. Specially designed cars served as mobile post offices with clerks sorting the mail en route. There were all kinds of ingenious methods for ensuring speedy delivery. For example, postal workers on trains picked up bags of mail with special catch-post equipment while their trains were still moving. People could even post letters through mail slots in the sides of trains. The mail-by-rail service ended in 1971 with the introduction of mechanized mail sorting and the expansion of the national highway system.

  A World of Goods

As Canadians became more urbanized in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, they began to buy more goods, rather than produce them themselves. Retailers used the railways to transport products to postal offices in large cities and small farming communities. Canadians across the country thus had access to a world of goods, including the latest fashions, food and household appliances.

Mail Order Catalogues

In 1884, the T. Eaton Company issued Canada’s first mail order catalogue. The Hudson’s Bay Company, Simpson’s and Woodward’s soon followed with their own catalogues. The mail order catalogue made it possible for anyone with mail service or a nearby rail station to buy from the full range of a city store’s products. This thriving partnership between transportation, communication and retail networks gave people living in remote areas of Canada access to practically everything they might want to buy.

Come on Over

More than three million immigrants came to Canada in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries because of federal government efforts, in cooperation with private- sector rail and retail interests. The federal government began the advertising campaigns designed to attract European immigrants to land available for settlement in Western Canada. Companies like the Canadian Pacific Railway and the Hudson’s Bay Company later continued these campaigns, which included promotional pamphlets that tried to downplay the effects of bitter Canadian winters.

Montréal: Canada’s First Metropolis

The home of retail empires such as Dupuis Frères and Morgan’s, as well as an important transportation and business centre, Montréal was Canada’s financial, cultural and industrial capital throughout the nineteenth century and for most of the twentieth. By 1911, Montréal’s main post office had walls of marble, a tiled mosaic floor and an upper floor supported by huge pillars with classic capitals. By the turn of the century, the city’s Windsor Station had an elegant five-arch open carriageway for passenger traffic, while Eaton’s ninth-floor restaurant featured an art deco design inspired by a famous ocean liner.

The Insider View

Over the past 150 years, mail, rail and retail services have employed thousands of Canadians with diverse skills, from rail engineers to letter carriers to store clerks. Railway mail clerks worked in dusty, jarring, and hot or cold conditions depending on the season, but there were compensations in the strong sense of camaraderie among workers. Railway firemen endured blisteringly hot conditions, shovelling coal into boilers, but their jobs were often a stepping stone to becoming an engineer.

Women at Work

Retail clerks were often women. Although they had little opportunity for advancement, they enjoyed clean, comfortable surroundings and the assurance of steady employment. During the First and Second World Wars, women worked in jobs formerly dominated by men, many of whom were fighting overseas. In the 1960s and 1970s, women started to break down old barriers and occupy positions from train crew member to letter carrier to corporate executive.

Connecting in the Twenty-First Century

Today, Canadians continue to benefit from the partnership between mail, rail and retail services. The growth of new technologies, including electronic communications and the Internet, are revolutionizing the way all three services are delivered. This revolution builds on the story, begun in the 1850s, of the three essential, interdependent sectors that have made it possible for Canadians to connect throughout their nation’s vast territory.