The Chung Collection is an outstanding collection of archival documents, photographs, books, and artifacts related to three broad themes: British Columbia History, Immigration and Settlement, and the Canadian Pacific Railway Company. This collection contains over 10,000 digitized items dating from the 18^th century to the 20^th century, of which we have discussed the menus and landscape paintings in previous blog posts. In this blog post we would like to explore the use of the telegraph in the past.

Today’s communication methods are different from the past. People rely on tools, such as social media, email, calls and remote conferencing to engage in conversations with friends and co-workers. However, in the past, we did not have any convenient and cost-effective ways to connect with others who lived on another side of the country, not to mention outside the country. Fortunately, the invention of the telegraph revolutionized long-distance communication.

Telegraph Companies

Several companies entered the telegraph market providing telegram services in Canada in the late 19^th century, for instance, Canadian Pacific Telegraph, Dominion Telegraph Company and The Great North Western Telegraph Company of Canada. Through mergers and acquisitions, CNCP Telecommunications became the main electrical telegraph operator in the late 20^th century.

Card advertising Canadian Pacific Telegraph, [between 1930 and 1939?]

[Telegram to Gee Hoy Tune from Young China Association], [1912-01-14]

Telegraph Equipment

The Canadian Pacific Railway Company’s Telegraph used this brass telegraph machine to send and receive messages. To ensure smooth workflow of receiving and sending telegrams, the company had their telegraph forms put in this bronze holder. This telegraph company also issued the book of telegraph codes to its ticket agents, passenger agents, baggage agents and passenger traffic officials to save money on tolls.

Telegraph, [1910?]

Telegraph forms holder, [between 1920 and 1929?]

Telegraph cipher code, 1916-09-01

Telegrams

This pamphlet lists the rate of 5 common telegram services provided by Canadian Pacific Communication Services in 1932: Fast Day Telegram, Day Message, Night Message, Day Letter and Night Letter. It also shows that the Canadian Pacific Communication Services could send telegrams from Winnipeg to other cities in North America, Europe, Oceania and South America.

Telegraph, telephone, radio broadcasting : rates for telegrams and cables from Winnipeg, Man, 1932-01-01

Here are some telegrams sent by different telegraph companies to cities around the world.

Between Hong Kong and Vancouver

Telegrams from Sam Wo Hing, Hong Kong, 1924-1936

Between San Francisco and Montreal

[Telegram from Chee Kang Jong to Chee Kung Tong], [not before 1900]

Between Taipei and Victoria

[Telegram from Huataico to Yellun], 1950-01-03

It is impossible to understand these telegram messages without referring to the codebook that is used to encode and decode the Chinese telegraph code.

[Telegram from Yeelunco], 1951-04-03

[Telegram from Yeelunco], 1950-09-20

If you wish to explore further, please visit The Chung Collection to conduct keyword searches:

https://open.library.ubc.ca/search?q=title:”telegram”&collection=chung

References

History of Telecommunications in Canada. (n.d.). Telecommunications In Canada. https://www.telecommunications.ca/history.htm