Scenograph of the Canadian Rockies

This collection of 20 hand-colored postcards was issued by the Gowen Sutton Company of Vancouver, BC, no doubt with the cooperation of the Canadian Pacific as most of the photos are of CPR trains, tracks, and hotels. Frank Gowen preferred real photo postcards over printed ones, but I’m not sure if real-photo cards can be hand colored.

Click image to download a 4.0-MB PDF of these postcards.

The locomotive shown in the third card in this collection is numbered 2717, which would make it a G-4 Pacific. Built in the Canadian Pacific’s own shops in 1919, this locomotive was later redecorated with a larger number board on the side. Since this doesn’t appear in this photo, it must be early in the locomotive’s life. I estimate this postcard collection dates to the early 1920s.


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