The Slocan History Series by Professor Emeritus Cole Harris (1936-2022) in UBC’s Department of Geography, is available in cIRcle. The series documents the social and industrial history of British Columbia’s Slocan Valley, including early settler experiences and resource development.
A key part of the project was collaboration with Harris’s family, and the article highlights how cIRcle services can provide long-term access and preservation of unique, local outputs created by our UBC community. This extends their reach beyond the physical copies, allowing researchers, students, and the public worldwide to engage with this regional history. This initiative underscores UBC Library’s commitment to open access and to preserving regional history for a wider public audience.
Deposit Your Research
Are you a UBC faculty member interested in making your research openly accessible? Please consult our Faculty and Staff Work page for information about adding your work to cIRcle, or Contact Us.
Join Dr. Christina Laffin, associate professor of Japanese literature, for a conversation with Kanako Nishi and book translator Allison Markin Powell to discuss what the translation of Nishi’s bestselling novel, Sakura, means in the context of the rising popularity of Japanese fiction among English readers.
Vaisakhi (or Baisakhi), typically celebrated on April 13 or 14, marks the spring harvest. It is a time for farmers to give thanks for an abundant harvest and pray for future prosperity. The festival is celebrated by the Sikh community in India and across the global Sikh diaspora. Vaisakhi also holds deep significance for Sikhs. […]
UBC Library connects learners with the tools, collections and spaces they need to explore ideas and excel academically. Join us today to support UBC Library on UBC Giving Day, April 8.
Travelling and tourism are prominent topics in the Chung Collection. The collection contains more than 10,000 archival items, including documents, photographs, books, and other artifacts. Many of these materials relate to travel through the Canadian Pacific Railway Company and offer fascinating glimpses into British Columbia’s history. They reveal traces of the province’s early commercial and industrial development, as well as stories of immigration and settlement in Canada. They also highlight the growth of leisure travel, especially the experience of exploring Canada by train or journeying across the world by cruise ship.
Browsing through these vintage pamphlets is like stepping back in time. They not only show the pricing and travel packages offered during that period, but also capture the excitement and romance of crossing a continent by rail or sailing to distant destinations. At the same time, the imagery and descriptions in these pamphlets reveal how people once imagined and represented different parts of the world, offering insight into the historical perspectives and cultural biases of the time.
This blog post highlights a selection of international travel promotional materials from the Chung Collection. Enjoy!
Please note that the Chung Collection may contain outdated or harmful language, stereotypes, descriptions, or imagery that reflect the perspectives of their time. Please read with historical awareness.
A Peiping sojourn
This promotional pamphlet from around the 1920s introduces Peiping, a former romanized name for Beijing, China. Its pages bring the city to life with descriptions of everyday street scenes and local traditions, from weddings and funerals to lively festivals, fairs, and markets. The pamphlet also highlights theatre performances, food, and a variety of places that visitors might explore. Together, this pamphlet offer a fascinating glimpse of how the city was presented to travelers nearly a century ago.
Here’s how it describes Peiping as a destination full of remarkable places to visit:
“If one stays in Japan, each city has its charm, its own special object of interest, but to really see Japan means traveling from one end of the island to the other, to the north – and then there is still the return. In Peiping and near Peiping are situated all the places of interest – the Great Wall, the Ming Tombs – so many intriguing spots that all description are dull as compared with the actuality.”
S/S Empress of France Mediterranean cruise de luxe : Istanbul March 1931, few notes on points visited during the excursion
This 1931 pamphlet describes a shore excursion to Istanbul during a Mediterranean cruise on the Empress of France. It offers a brief introduction to the city’s history and highlights several remarkable sites that tourists could visit while in Istanbul. You might even find inspiration for your next cultural trip to explore the prehistorical marvels of the cradle of human civilisation!
This 1964 pamphlet advertises Canadian Pacific Airlines tours in Italy. It includes detailed information on the daily schedule and tour costs. At the time, a 15-day tour of Italy from Rome to Sicily cost about 400 Canadian dollars for a single room, with hotels and meals included.
This 1930 pamphlet advertises 48 attractive escorted tours to Europe and back. It features a variety of itineraries to Hungary, with routes passing through many European countries. Every detail of these excursions was planned, from transportation to sightseeing. Take a look through the pamphlet and explore what these tour packages had to offer. Browse the price lists, discover the destinations, and imagine the experience of traveling across Europe almost a century ago!
To Australia and New Zealand by the Canadian Pacific route
This 1932 booklet advertises travel to Australia and New Zealand, and train and ship travel with the Canadian Pacific. Take a look through its pages and imagine embarking on a vintage journey across the Pacific. Travelers could board the quadruple-screw motor-ship “Aorangi” or the triple-screw steamship “Niagara” in Vancouver or Victoria and set sail toward the South Pacific. Along the way, the voyage included stops in the tropical destinations of Honolulu and the Fiji Islands. From there, passengers could continue on to New Zealand or Australia to explore beautiful cities and dramatic natural landscapes.
Explore the Chung Collection, one of the largest research collections on the Canadian Pacific Railway Company, featuring documents, maps, publications, photographs, and artifacts that illustrate CPR’s construction, steamship services, travel, and more.
Read more blog posts about Canadian Pacific Railway travel:
We have lost access to Cambridge University Press. Users will see a ‘503 Service Temporarily Unavailable’ error.
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March 20th was Nowruz, which marks the Persian New Year and the arrival of spring in the Northern hemisphere. Nowruz, meaning “new day” in Persian, has been celebrated for over 3,000 years across regions influenced by Persian culture. The Haft-Seen table is adorned with seven symbolic items, each beginning with the letter ‘S’ in Persian: […]
