Canada Post today at CAPEX 22 issued five new stamps featuring nostalgic travel posters from the 20th-century golden age of commercial art and tourism marketing.
With railway expansion – and later the advent of the automobile – Canada’s popularity as a tourist destination surged in the early 1900s. Railways and steamship companies promoted the burgeoning industry by commissioning illustrators and designers to target globe-trotting tourists and Canadians alike. Ad campaigns beckoned people to explore Canada’s wild beauty and urban attractions by promising world-class adventure, scenery and luxury.
The boom in travel advertisements with a distinctive and elegant style fostered a golden age of commercial art in Canada.
The five posters featured on the new issue evoke nostalgia for an era of glamorous travel and include:
- an observation car on the Canadian, Canadian Pacific Railway’s premier transcontinental train, in the Rocky Mountains (1955, by Canadian artist Roger Couillard);
- the breezy glamour of cruising the Great Lakes with Canadian Pacific (circa 1937, after the work of British artist Tom Purvis);
- the Royal York – now the Fairmont Royal York – a landmark hotel in downtown Toronto (circa 1935, by Norman Fraser, birthplace unknown);
- skiing in style at picturesque Mont-Tremblant ski resort, Quebec (1939, by Austrian-born artist Herbert Bayer); and
- the welcoming sandy beaches and lighthouses of Canada’s spectacular east coast (circa 1950, by Saskatchewan-born artist Peter Ewart).
THE STAMPS
The Permanent domestic-rate stamps are available in booklets of 10.
Montréal’s Paprika studio designed the stamps, which were printed by Lowe-Martin in Ottawa.
In addition to booklets, the issue includes souvenir sheets of all five stamps – including one overprinted with the CAPEX 22 logo – plus prepaid postcards (sold separately or in a set of five) and an official first-day cover.
The stamps and collectibles are now available for purchase at post offices or at canadapost.ca/shop.
CSN’s next edition (Vol. 47 #6) will feature a full review of Canada Post’s new issue.