To The Orient via Honolulu poster – Canadian Pacific – 1933

Poster: To The Orient via Honolulu poster – Canadian Pacific – 1933

This is a great vintage travel poster promoting trips to the Orient via Honolulu on The White Empress Route through the Canadian Pacific Shipping Company. At the time the Canadian Pacific was one of the major transatlantic passenger and cargo shipping companies.

The Canadian Pacific had some of the fastest, most luxurious ocean liners in the world. The liners, with their hulls painted ‘Empress’ white included famous ships including the Empress of Britain, the Empress of Ireland and Empress of Canada. The art deco style travel poster depicts an oriental woman sitting at a port in a rickshaw. She is wearing a red silk kimono. One of the Canadian Pacific ‘Empress’ ships can be seen arriving in port amongst several traditional sailing boats in the harbour.

When it was completed in 1881, The Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) was by far the longest railway ever completed. Right from the railway’s earliest beginnings, and even before the private Canadian Pacific Steamship Company was founded, government contractor steamships played a pivotal role in the railway’s construction.

In 1884, the railway began purchasing sailing ships to improve the supply service on the Great Lakes. Over the next couple of years, the CPR had become a railway company with a significant, well organised shipping operation and with its success, the CPR adopted a new name – the Canadian Pacific Steamship Company in 1887. By the 20th century, the company had evolved into an intercontinental railway that operated two transoceanic services. CPR initiated an ocean-going service between the Port of Vancouver and Hong Kong, Japan and China.

In 1891, CPR and the British government reached an agreement on a contract for a subsidised mail service between Britain and Hong Kong via Canada. The route was serviced by three specially designed Empress liners – RMS Empress of China, RMS Empress of India and RMS Empress of Japan.

Each of these “Empress” steamships sailed regularly in the period from 1891 through 1912, creating what was known as the White Empress Route. The service enabled passengers to travel from England to Eastern Canada, travel across the railway to Vancouver, and on to Asian destinations. 

In 1903, the company took over the ships and services of the Beaver Line and began operating ships on the Atlantic between Halifax, Nova Scotia and the United Kingdom. In 1906, the company built two ocean liners, the RMS Empress of Britain and the RMS Empress of Ireland each with a capacity of 1,530 passengers. Canadian Pacific continued to expand becoming a major international cargo carrier and operator of luxury passenger ocean liners with popular ships such as Empress of Britain and Empress of Canada. In her time Empress of Britain was the largest, fastest and most luxurious ship between the United Kingdom and Canada, and the largest ship in the Canadian Pacific fleet.

Our posters are carefully and professionally created from vintage originals. Whilst great care is taken in the production of these posters, we also try to maintain a vintage feel, so there may be small imperfections, fold marks, scuffs, tears, or marks that were part of the original poster master. If these do appear they should be visible on the larger views of the item on this listing. The originals of many of the posters we offer can cost many thousands of pounds, so whilst these posters look great, especially framed and mounted on a wall, they are intended as fun, affordable reproductions and not intended fine art prints.

The 50x70cm version has been specially produced to be used in conjunction with Ikea’s 50x70cm Ribba picture frame which currently retails for around £12. So you can bag a bargain of print and poster for just £22.