How Would People Know Without the Internet?

(1886). The Canadian Pacific, the new highway to the orient across the mountains, prairies and rivers of Canada. Canadiana, https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.14587/6

The internet has only been around for about 40 years, but the country wide railway has been here for almost 150. So how did the CPR advertise itself and its services? Besides the obvious construction sites and word-of-mouthing that would happen over the course of its construction, the CPR would’ve been unwise to rely completely on others to handle advertising. The solution was making their own adverts, in the newspaper for example, and publishing their own books/pamphlets. This artefact was published with the purpose of suggesting what sights would be seen over the train ride. The monograph describes the mountains and plains in their former untouched glory and how from the train, the sight is something unique and exclusive to the viewing from the CPR. Continuing along in the book, there are illustrations of first class cabins, lakes, ports, towns, cities and a variety of other examples of the things you could see as a tourist on the CPR.