A while back, our ASTU class visited The Chung Collection. For starters, I had no idea that there was a mini museum hidden under Irving, there were all sorts of different historical items.

Ephemera was all over, which is  basically a paper product used to serve a purpose and then be tossed away, except people saved them and now they’re little pieces of history. There were brochure-like pamphlets advertising West Coast Vancouver Island Tours, Sunset Cruises, The Fiords of British Columbia, and Fun for All the Family at Newcastle Island! These pamphlets all were vintage looking, using bright pastel colors and smooth looking illustrations. It reminded me of World War II propaganda in America. This was a valuable insight to Canada’s rich history for me.

There was also authentic railroad building equipment used for the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railroad. Lanterns, axes, and elongated oil cans lined a section of the exhibit. There were two large-scale models in the collection as well. My personal favorite was the huge model ship that looked professionally done, I was amazed to discover that Mr. Chung himself helped restore it to its former glory and contributed possibly thousands of hours toward it. The other model was a reincarnation of a train that one of the builders worked on originally. I guess the worker enjoyed making the life-size one so much that he felt like making a smaller scale version. Small is a bit of a misnomer however, for although these are miniature models they remain to be gigantic. These models reminded me of The Lord of the Rings film trilogy where the director Peter Jackson created “big-atures” in order to film detailed and realistic locations such as Rivendell, Helm’s Deep, and Minas Tirith.

Finally, there were all sorts of different propaganda posters advertising The Canadian Pacific Empresses, steamships, and tours and cruises. All of the posters had a clean, cartoon, and pop art feel. Some of these ads depicted Canada’s beautiful landscape, whereas others showed detailed Empresses in different ports of the world. These posters were all tweaked slightly depending on what audience they were advertising to which I found interesting, but not surprising. The CPR wanted to brag and advertise as best they could.

After viewing The Chung Collection my knowledge of the CPR was expanded and better understood due to the visual aids, perhaps it’s just the way my mind works but all of the imagery is retained easily. I’m also glad to have learnt that The Chung Collection is a historical goldmine located right under UBC’s own learning center.