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          Many of  you, especially fans of Canadian rail lines, like Canadian Pacific and Canadian National, have heard of Heckman.  He was the man who was hired by Canadian Pacific and traveled from east to west and all the way in between to take pictures of the creation and development of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR).

          Joseph William Heckman was a pioneer photographer for the Canadian Pacific Railway. During the period from 1898 through 1915, he travelled the breadth of Canada, photographing the railway in Nova Scotia in the east and Vancouver Island in the west, as well as every province in between.  That in and of itself was extraordinary, especially for the time period.  Traveling by train in that time was difficult enough, but Mr. Heckman often used a handcar - anyone ever try moving down the rails, not as a passenger, but pushing down and lifting up the

          With his large format glass plate camera, Heckman - an engineer himself -  travelled by train and hand car across the nation. In so doing, he captured 4,900 views of the entirety of the Canadian Pacific Railway at a formative period in its development. Working for the Engineering Department, he photographed not only the stations and bridges of the railway, but its steamships, hotels and, most importantly, the people who made the railway run.  Of the more than 4,000 of these truly historic photographs, many have been preserved in large format albums in the CPR's archives.