Image Title: Douglas Coupland: Generation X Source: Douglas Coupland Fonds Creator: Douglas Coupland Publisher: Call Number: Box 51, Folder 9 Learn More Tags: artists, coupland

 

“I just want to show society what people born after 1960 think about things…We’re sick of stupid labels, we’re sick of being marginalized in lousy jobs, and we’re tired of hearing about ourselves from others.” —Douglas Coupland, Boston Globe, 1991

Coupland’s Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture touched a nerve with the post-baby boomers. Told by three disaffected 20-somethings in the ’90s searching for meaning in their monotonous lives, Coupland’s first novel captured the ennui and angst of a generation. Originally envisioned as a non-fiction handbook, the novel began as a series of short articles in Vancouver magazine. The biting and witty novel eventually became a global phenomenon, popularizing terms such as “Generation X” and “McJob.”

Courtesy of Rare Books and Special Collections

© Douglas Coupland

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Image Title: Douglas Coupland Collection Source: Douglas Coupland Fonds Creator: Douglas Coupland Publisher: Call Number: Box 71, Folder 3 Learn More Tags: artists, coupland

 

“I collect everything.” – Douglas Coupland

The fortress of bankers boxes that accumulated in Douglas Coupland’s home contained the remnants and miscellany of more than three decades of groundbreaking artistic activity. The curiosities of the collection include autographed Kraft dinner packages used as invitations to Coupland’s Canada House exhibit, the original Polaroid of Terry Fox’s leg used for Coupland’s biography of the runner and activist, office rant wallpaper that became the endpapers for JPod, his Christmas wish list from 1973, a foam replica of a loaf of Wonderbread, two German ’zines about Coupland’s work, car maintenance receipts, his high school diploma, two sketches drawn while Coupland was on an airplane, two annotated foldout maps of Los Angeles, calligraphy projects, two large flattened cereal boxes and “handwritten existential notes on loneliness and time.”

This image can be found in the Douglas Coupland fonds at UBC Library’s Rare Books and Special Collections.

Courtesy of Rare Books and Special Collections

© Douglas Coupland

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Image Title: Douglas Coupland: Kraft Dinner Source: Douglas Coupland Fonds Creator: Douglas Coupland Publisher: Call Number: Box 49, Folder 3 Learn More Tags: artists, coupland

 

Though primarily known as an author, Douglas Coupland is also an internationally recognized visual artist. He graduated from what is now known as the Emily Carr University of Art + Design and pursued studies in art and design at the Europe Design Institute in Italy and the Hokkaido College of Art in Japan. Coupland’s postmodern installations and monuments have been exhibited in North America, Asia and Europe.
Exhibits such as Canada House characterize his playful approach to complex questions of patriotism, pop culture, spirituality and national identity. The Canada House exhibit transformed a 1970s Vancouver home slated for demolition into a rumination on Canadiana and Coupland’s Vancouver childhood. The sculptures of antler chairs, melancholy Canadian geese and Kraft dinner boxes poked fun at Canadian design oddities and stereotypes, but also linked viewers to a shared experience of Canadian-ness.
This image can be found in the Douglas Coupland fonds at UBC Library’s Rare Books and Special Collections.

Courtesy of Rare Books and Special Collections

© Douglas Coupland

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Image Title: Douglas Coupland: Manuscript Notes Source: Douglas Coupland Fonds Creator: Douglas Coupland Publisher: Call Number: Box 5, Folder 10 Learn More Tags: artists, coupland, writing

 

“I hope that within [the archive], people in the future will find patterns and constellations that can’t be apparent to me or to anyone simply because they are there, and we are here.” – Douglas Coupland

Inside the 122 meticulously organized boxes in the vault of UBC Rare Books and Special Collections are more than three decades of artefacts, ephemera and manuscripts from one of Canada’s most widely admired minds. Containing over 30 metres of textual material, priceless pieces such as the first handwritten draft of Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture and curios including a moist towelette promoting the novel Microserfs, the Douglas Coupland Archive exposes the inner workings of the artist, the author and the cultural commentator.
This image can be found in the Douglas Coupland fonds at UBC Library’s Rare Books and Special Collections.

Courtesy of Rare Books and Special Collections

© Douglas Coupland

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Image Title: Douglas Coupland Source: Douglas Coupland Fonds Creator: Douglas Coupland Publisher: Call Number: Box 119, folder 6 Learn More Tags: artists, coupland

 

“The Internet forces me, as a creator, to figure out who I really am and what is unique to me – or to anyone else, for that matter – I like this.” – Douglas Coupland

Unwilling to be limited by labels or a single medium, Douglas Coupland has spent a lifetime exploring different forms of expression. Beyond his novels and visual art, Coupland has also experimented with theatre, the Internet, television and film. An early adopter of new technology, Coupland was one of the first artists to create a webpage – and he explored its capabilities and limitations as a canvas for visual art. His Souvenir of Canada documentary chronicled the creation of an exhibit and delved into Coupland’s childhood and insights into Canadian identity. His best-selling novel, JPod, was adapted into a CBC television series, and in 2006 he wrote the screenplay for the film Everything’s Gone Green. His fascination with medium and message culminated in a biography of another influential Canadian cultural critic, Marshall McLuhan.
This image can be found in the Douglas Coupland fonds at UBC Library’s Rare Books and Special Collections.

Courtesy of Rare Books and Special Collections

© Douglas Coupland

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Image Title: Gilmpses of British Columbia  Source: Glimpses along the Canadian Pacific Railway: Mountain series A Creator: Canadian Pacific Railway Company Publisher: Unknown. 189- Call Number: FC219 .C357 1890z Learn More Tags: canadian pacific railway, photograph, travel

 

The story behind the financing of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) is as complex as the men who wrote it. George “The Boss” Stephen was a dapper banking dandy who ruled the high streets of Montreal and was the first in the city to employ a personal valet. Stephen’s cousin, Donald Smith, had been banished to the wilds of Labrador after becoming too friendly with the head of the Hudon’s Bay Company but transformed his disgrace into profit. He even managed to perfectly recreate an English country garden on the rocky shores of the forbidding provice. Smith met the third member of the syndicate in the middle of a deadly blizzard in the Red River Valley. In contrast to the refined Scots cousins, J.J. Hill was a rough journeyman who renamed himself “Jerome” in honour of Napoleon’s brother.

Huddled around the fire to keep warm, Smith and Hill forged a partnership that would build monopolies in the American steamboat trade, trade in the Red River Valley and the CPR. The unlikely trio, which had little experience building railroads, formed the core of the syndicate that managed the 15-year enterprise that catapulted them into the ranks of the richest men on the planet.

For further information see: Cruise, David, and Allison Griffiths. Lords of the Line. Markham, ON: Viking, 1988; and McKee, Bill and Georgeen Klassen. Trail of Iron: The CPR and the Birth of the West, 1880-1930. Vancouver: The Glenbow-Alberta Institution in association with Douglas & McIntyre, 1983.

This image can be found in UBC Library’s Rare Books and Special Collections (FC219 .C357 1890z).

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© UBC Library

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Image Title: Gilmpses of British Columbia Source: Glimpses along the Canadian Pacific Railway: Mountain series A Creator: Canadian Pacific Railway Company Publisher: Unknown. 189- Call Number: FC219 .C357 1890z Learn More Tags: canadian pacific railway, lake, mountains, photograph

 

The Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) may have transformed the face of the nation, but individual CPR executives, contractors and even brakemen left their indelible mark on the Canadian landscape. Towns, stations and geographical landmarks bear the mark of CPR employees’ creativity. Enlaugra, Quebec is an amalgamation of Enid, Laura and Grace, the daughters of CPR’s General Manager Alfred Price. Clemens, Saskatchewan is named after the brother of the author of “Tom Sawyer” who happened to be in town. Patriotic workers dubbed Adanac by spelling Canada backwards. Bibliophile CPR employees’ love of literature lives on in towns across Canada. Hugo, Shelley and Rudyard in Manitoba are named after the famous writers and poets. Fans of the Bard appreciate the engineer Andrew McCullock’s christening of the areas of the Coquihalla that bear the names of Shakespearian characters such as Iago, Romeo, Juliet, Lear, Portia and Shylock.

The Three Sisters mountains were originally known as the Three Nuns. After a blanket of snow covered the Rockies, the first group of surveyors in the area remarked that they looked like a group of nuns at prayer. A disapproving Protestant mapmaker later changed the name to the Three Sisters.

For further information see: Hungrywolf, Adolf. Rails in the Canadian Rockies. Invermere, BC: Good Medicine Books, 1980; and Jones, David L. Tales of the CPR. Calgary: Fifth House, 2002.

This image can be found in UBC Library’s Rare Books and Special Collections (FC219 .C357 1890z).

Courtesy of Rare Books and Special Collections

© UBC Library

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Image Title: The Spirit of Canada Source: The Spirit of Canada, Dominion and Provinces, 1939: Souvenir of Welcome to H.M. King George VI and H.M. Queen Elizabeth Creator: Canadian Pacific Railway Company. Illustrated by Charles W. Simpson, R.C.A. Publisher: Canada: Canadian Pacific Railway Company. 1939 Call Number: FC223 .R6 1939 Learn More Tags: canadian pacific railway, king, pamphlet, queen

 

The Spirit of Canada souvenir booklets were printed by the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) to commemorate the 1939 Royal Tour. King George VI and Queen Elizabeth’s visit offered Canadians a chance to momentarily forget the hardships of the Great Depression and enjoy the glamour and pomp of a royal tour. Crossing the Atlantic in the CPR’s luxurious Empress of Australia, the couple amused themselves on the passage by watching movies in the ship’s theatre and swimming in one of the three pools. After arriving in Montreal, the couple travelled almost exclusively in the CPR’s new Hudson locomotive with its 12 railcars refurbished in royal blue, gold and silver. The Queen, upon inspecting the first train in the Empire outside of Great Britain to carry the reigning monarchs, exclaimed, “It is a lovely engine!”

The tour from coast to coast was the longest journey undertaken by a steam locomotive in Canadian history. At the end of the royal visit, H.B. Bowen, the Hudsons’ designer and CPR Chief of Motor Power, requested and was granted a noble favour: Henceforth, the Hudsons would now be known as the Royal Hudsons.

For further information see: Sanford, Barrie. The Pictorial History of Railroading in British Columbia. Vancouver: Whitecap Books Ltd., 1981; and Wolmar, Christian. Fire & Steam: A New History of the Railways in Britain. London: Atlantic Books, 2007.

This image can be found in UBC Library’s Rare Books and Special Collections (FC223 .R6 1939).

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© UBC Library

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Image Title: Banff Springs Hotel from Tunnel Mountain Source: Glimpses along the Canadian Pacific Railway: Mountain series A Creator: Canadian Pacific Railway Company Publisher: Unknown. 189- Call Number: FC219 .C357 1890z Learn More Tags: banff, canadian pacific railway, travel, tunnel

 

Sir Hugh Allen, the richest man in Canada, was furious with Sir John A. Macdonald. “Old Tomorrow” was the acute nickname of the wily Prime Minister who preferred to play the political game until he was forced to show his hand. Though he dressed like a hobo and his legendary feats of inebriation led him to being ejected from the Parliamentary lunchroom on at least one occasion, he was an astute leader. Four companies were vying for the contract to build the first transcontinental railway across Canada but Macdonald was adamant that the project be funded exclusively by Canadian money.

Unfortunately, Allen’s key investor was an American millionaire, Jay Cooke. Allen decided to grease the political wheel with a complicated blackmail and bribery scheme of key members of Parliament. When the story broke, the Pacific Scandal toppled the government and left the Tories in disgrace. However, Macdonald had his revenge. When Alexander Mackenzie’s government proved unable to deal with the economic depression that gripped the country, Macdonald rode back into power in 1878 and pointedly snubbed Allen and awarded the contact to the syndicate helmed by George Stephen.

For further information see: Gwyn, Richard. John A.: The Man Who Made Us: The Life and Times of John A. Macdonald. Toronto: Random House Canada, 2007.

This image can be found in UBC Library’s Rare Books and Special Collections (FC219 .C357 1890z).

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© UBC Library

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Image Title: Sam Black: Blue Rocks Source: Sam Black fonds Creator: Black, Sam Publisher: 1913-1998 Call Number: Box 14 Learn More Tags: painting, water

 

Sam Black was well known as a B.C. artist and a vibrant professor. Many of his works reflect his love of coastal life, which he developed growing up in a coastal town in Scotland. Black’s sketchbooks contain many images of Vancouver’s coastline, drawings of boats and freighters, and images of the animals who live on the coast.

This image can also be found in box 14 of the Sam Black fonds at UBC Archives.

Photo courtesy of University Archives © Sam Black

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