“Nothing material, not even the mail, moves across oceans and continents with the speed of silk”
– George Marvin (The Sunday Province, 10 February, 1929)
CP Rail News volume 11, number 2 (Centennial issue). The Chung Collection. CC-TX-206-1-2
We are delighted to announce a new display– Canada’s Silk Trains – which tells the story of the fast-paced silk train era. From the time that the first 65 packages of silk were unloaded in Vancouver on June 13, 1897, the race was on to find the fastest way to transport this valuable cargo across Canada and on to the National Silk Exchange in New York.
Between the late 1880s to the mid-1930s, the Canadian Pacific Railway, and later the Canadian National Railway, competed against time, the elements, and each other to transport silk to eastern markets. Insurance rates for silk were charged by the hour, incentivizing the rail companies to pursue faster and faster transportation times.
Despite the high speeds of the silk trains, there were very few accidents. The most well-known incident occurred on September 21, 1927, when a silk train derailed just beyond Hope, British Columbia, sending 4,500 bales of silk into the Fraser River. This accident was reported in newspapers at the time, and later provided the inspiration for the picture book Emma and the Silk Train. Images of the accident are not common, and so we were excited to identify two confirmed photographs (and one suspected photograph) of the crash in the newly available Price family collection. The display features books, photographs, and newspaper articles from across UBC Library’s Rare Books and Special Collections.
Canada’s Silk Trains is on display in the Rare Books and Special Collections satellite reading room on level 1 of the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre and can be viewed Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. through July 4, 2025. For more information, please contact Rare Books and Special Collections at (604) 822-2521 or rare.books@ubc.ca.
References
Lawson, J. (1997). Emma and the silk train. (Mombourquette, P. Illus.). Kids Can Press (PZ4.9.L397 Em 1997).
Marvin, G. (1929, February 10). Fast as silk? [Microfilm of The Sunday Province, Vancouver, p.3]. https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/february-10-1929-page-43- 56/docview/2368257290/se-2