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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:

00:00 / 01:16

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

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。

Listen

00:00 / 01:04

Classification/Category:

Tools & Equipment for Materials

Specific Classification:

Tools

Notable Signatures,

Inscriptions, and/or Markings:

Primary Material:

Metal

Medium:

Steel

Dimensions:

Donated by:

Hammer donated by Yuk Choi Lee

Accession Number:

1993.004.002

Canadian Pacific Railway Tools 加拿大太平洋鐵路工具

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