Accession Number

2015.011

Description

This is a real photograph postcard of colliery workers stacking sacks of coal at a railway siding in the Nanaimo area. Six men stand on the bags of coal in the left mid-ground. In the background is a portion of the Vancouver Coal Mining and Land Company's wharf. Railway tracks lead away from the coal sacks stacked on wooden pallets. The rail car shown has a flat bed and no sides. "Sacking Coal for Shipment to Nome" is printed in white along the bottom (to the left). The postcard is blank on the verso and was unused.

Narrative

This is a real photograph postcard of colliery workers stacking sacks of coal at a railway siding in the Nanaimo area. The railway tracks appear to be of a gauge wider than that of a Nanaimo colliery railway. The rail car shown has a flat bed and no sides, further indicating that this is not a typical colliery railway. This is probably Esquimalt & Nanaimo Railway infrastructure, which was Dunsmuir property until 1905 when it was sold to the CPR. After 1905, James Dunsmuir continued to use E & N tracks to move coal from his Extension mine.

The postcard’s description indicates that the coal was being readied for shipment to Nome, Alaska. The EBay vendor of the postcard assigned a date of 1910, but the photograph was probably taken before then. The US Federal census shows that Nome’s population fluctuated dramatically in a 20 year span: 1890 2,754 persons; 1900 12,488 persons; 1910 2,600 persons. The reason for this variation is that a gold-rush occurred at Nome between 1899 and 1909. The photograph was probably taken between 1904 and 1907.

History of Use

Unknown. Purchased from an EBay seller in 2015.

Date

1904 – 1907

Dimensions

9 x 14 cm

Material

Paper, cardstock

Country of Origin

Canada