Department:
Our Chosen Land
Replica or Original:
Not a Replica
On Display, In Storage, or in a Private Offsite Collection:
On Display
Primary Material:
Metal
Medium:
Steel
Dimensions:
Classification/Category:
Tools & Equipment for Materials
Specific Classification:
Tools
Notable Signatures,
Inscriptions, and/or Markings:
Donated by:
Hammer donated by Yuk Choi Lee
Accession Number
1993.004.002
Artifact Date:
A.D. 1800 - 1899
Qing Dynasty (1644 - 1912)
Artifact Era/Dynasty:
Unknown
Creator:
Unknown
Creator Ancestry:

In a photograph taken at Craigellachie, British Columbia, Canadian Pacific Railway Director Donald Alexander Smith is shown hammering the final railroad spike into the newly completed railway. In this historic photograph, we see a crowd of white men surrounding the director, and the significant absence of a single Chinese man.
During the late nineteenth century, Chinese labourers became a vital part of completing the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR). As european settlers continued to colonize western Canada, the CPR aimed to unify the east and west coast due to building pressures from the United States, as well as Britain. At this time it was more efficient and less expensive to employ Chinese workers from Hong Kong than for manual laborours to cross Canada. Therefore, 72% of the railway labourers consisted of Chinese men who reinforced the railway project to completion.
When discussing the construction of the Canadian Pacfic Rail, accounts of Chinese laborers are vastly underrepresented and excluded in what we know to be the "history" of Canada. The railway tools included in the "Our Chosen Land" exhibition highlight the important connection between Chinese identities and the suffering endured that is overlooked, unacknowledged and undocumented.

Artifact Date:
A.D. 1800 - 1899
Artifact Era/Dynasty:
Qing Dynasty (1644 - 1912)
Creator:
Unknown
Creator Ancestory:
Unknown
Catalogue Entry
Online References:
Department:
Our Chosen Land
On Display, In Storage, or in a Private Offsite Collection:
On Display
Replica or Original:
Not a Replica
Canadian Pacific Railway tools used by Chinese workers.
中國工人曾使用的加拿大太平洋鐵路工具。
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Classification/Category:
Tools & Equipment for Materials
Specific Classification:
Tools
Notable Signatures,
Inscriptions, and/or Markings: