Title and statement of responsibility area
Title proper
General material designation
- Graphic material
Parallel title
Other title information
Title statements of responsibility
Title notes
- Source of title proper: Title based on creator and collector of the photographs.
- Attributions and conjectures: R.A. Harlow is believed to be responsible for taking those loose photos which possess a “snap-shot” quality while all others are the stamped on the verso with the marking of H.H. Douglas, a prolific Prince George commercial photographer. As an aside, Douglas had much of his work destroyed in a fire at his Third Ave. store (H.H. Douglas & Company Stationers) on New Years Eve, 1950. R.A.’s brother, Edward (Ned) Harlow, a Civil Engineer on the GTP during construction, who was also Resident Engineer on the project when the railway bridge across the Fraser River at Prince George was built, is the photographer responsible for the photographs found in the photo album.
Level of description
Reference code
Edition area
Edition statement
Edition statement of responsibility
Class of material specific details area
Statement of scale (cartographic)
Statement of projection (cartographic)
Statement of coordinates (cartographic)
Statement of scale (architectural)
Issuing jurisdiction and denomination (philatelic)
Dates of creation area
Date(s)
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1910-1974 (Creation)
- Creator
- Harlow, Roland Alden
Physical description area
Physical description
132 photographs : b&w
Publisher's series area
Title proper of publisher's series
Parallel titles of publisher's series
Other title information of publisher's series
Statement of responsibility relating to publisher's series
Numbering within publisher's series
Note on publisher's series
Archival description area
Name of creator
Biographical history
R.A. Harlow was born in Brewer, Maine on March 22, 1889 and died in Kelowna, BC on July 4, 1978 at 89 years of age. At the time of his death, Harlow was a retired roadmaster for CNR.
R.A. Harlow was a member of the surveying party for the Grand Trunk Pacific (GTP) Railway c.1911 and later worked on the Pacific Great Eastern (PGE) Railway as a Resident Engineer. While with the PGE, he was part of the engineering party which, on April 7, 1914, set the finish point stake and measured the required distance to the starting points for the two track-layer crews (East vs. West) who would race to the finish line. The West end crew cut and placed the last rail in place on the line after which PGE President E.J. Chamberlain drove in the last spike. After this historic driving in of the “last spike” on the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway one mile east of Fort Fraser, R.A. Harlow was then commissioned to take a small can of white paint and a brush and inscribe the following notation onto the flange of the 11ft. last rail: “Point of Completion April 7th, 1914”. This marked piece of rail was later taken up, shipped to Winnipeg and sliced into quarter-inch-thick pieces which were polished, suitably engraved and distributed among railway officers as paper-weights. One of these commemorative pieces is at the Prince George Railway and Forestry Museum. Aside from his involvement with the driving in of the “last spike”, R. A. Harlow was also intrinsically involved with the arrival of the first PGE train into Prince George from Squamish in 1952.
Scope and content
Consists of 47 black and white photographs; 1 photo album containing approximately 85 photographs; newspaper clippings; and some miscellaneous items.
Notes area
Arrangement
Language of material
- English
Script of material
Location of originals
Availability of other formats
Restrictions on access
No restrictions.
Terms governing use, reproduction, and publication
Personal or academic use of photographic materials is welcomed under the standard fair use and educational use clauses of Canadian Copyright Law. Commercial use is, however, forbidden without the express permission of the copyright holder. For information on obtaining written permission from the copyright holder, please contact the Northern B.C. Archives and Special Collections.
Finding aids
Associated materials
Part of the Prince George Railway & Forestry Museum Collection (PGRFM Collection)