As I have mentioned previously, the addition of the second Empress of Britain to Canadian Pacific’s ocean liner fleet in 1931 was a momentous enough occasion that I am using that year to divide the 1920s from the 1930s. The Chung collection has no West Indies cruise memorabilia for 1932, but it does have items from 1933 through 1939. Today’s post will present some booklets and brochures while menus will be covered tomorrow.

Click image to view and download a 3.2-MB PDF of this brochure from the Chung collection.

This 1933 brochure seems to be the only item in the Chung collection from the West Indies cruises that year. Two 28-day cruises were offered on the Duchess of Bedford from New York, one leaving January 7 and one leaving February 8. The minimum fare was $280, or $10 per day. Ten dollars is about $230 today, or a total of $6,500. Continue reading →

In early 1938, Canadian Pacific thought that it could do a standard world cruise in 1939. But in July, increasing hostilities between Japan and the Soviet Union, as well as continuing troubles in China, led CP to revise the itinerary. The cruise would go to from Bangkok north to Hong Kong, then turn south again to the Philippines and Bali, then west to South Africa and South America. Not only would it not cross the Pacific Ocean, it would never even enter that ocean.

Click image to view and download a 111.8-MB PDF of this booklet from the University of British Columbia Chung collection. The Chung collection also has a smaller brochure.

The cover of the booklet advertising the cruise not only has a painting that wraps around the back, the back cover folds out to make an extra large picture. This extravagance served no purpose other than to display the large illustration that is signed “Simpson.” This refers to Charles Walter Simpson, a Canadian artist whose work for both CP and CN we’ve seen several times before. Continue reading →

The booklet advertising the 1935 world cruise featured faux luggage stickers, likely drawn by CP staff artists. The largest sticker on the back cover is for Angkor Wat, the Cambodian ruin that was an optional exclusion in both the 1934 and 1935 cruises. Members took a train to the ruin which was limited to just 70 passengers. This option cost $232.75, which is about $5,000 in today’s money.

Click image to view and download a 62.4-MB PDF of this booklet from the University of British Columbia Chung collection.

The Chung collection has two different booklets advertising the cruise. The above booklet is for North American passengers while the one below is for European passengers who would begin their trips in Monaco and end them in New York. As shown below, they could then continue to Southampton on the Empress of Britain. Continue reading →

Leaving New York on December 3 and returning on April 11, the 1932-33 world cruise was 129 days long, two days longer than in 1931-32. The first 20 pages of the booklet below re-introduces us to the new Empress of Britain, including some rooms not shown in the introductory booklets. A library had walls of Circassian Walnut (but no bookshelves; apparently it was more of a writing room than a reading room). A movie theater was fully equipped to show “talkies.” Turkish baths aren’t shown but, the booklet says, were “decorated in marble and silver.”

Click image to view and download a 73.9-MB PDF of this booklet from the University of British Columbia Chung collection.

The cover of the booklet is signed GFG, meaning Gordon Fraser Gillespie, one of Canadian Pacific’s staff artists. He first began working on commission for CP in 1913 and in 1948 was placed in charge for all commercial art for the railroad. At some point between those two years he began working for CP full-time. I’ve previously stated that I suspect he and/or Charles James Greenwood, another staff artist, contributed many of the paintings to the 1926-27 world cruise booklet without getting any credit. I’m glad he got credit for this one. Continue reading →