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Reviewed by:
  • Country Post: Rural Postal Service in Canada, 1880-1945
  • Brian S. Osborne
Country Post: Rural Postal Service in Canada, 1880-1945. Chantal Amyot and John Willis. Gatineau, QC: Canadian Museum of Civilization, 2003. Pp. 212, illus. $39.95 paper

Once upon a time, Canada experienced a veritable revolution in communications. Individuals were connected with hitherto unimaginable rapidity and reliability; local markets were eroded by a seductive array of commodities that could be purchased from, and delivered by, distant retail houses; money could be transferred safely between regions and even nations. No, it was not the world of cyberspace, e-Bay, and e-banking, but it was no less revolutionary: it was the world of enhanced postal communications. A government investment in a national postal system, increased literacy, and training in the skill of correspondence allowed individuals to participate in a worldwide web of postal routes connecting households to each other and major centres of commerce.

The focus of Amyot and Willis's rich study is upon one sector of the postal revolution, the rural postal system made up of 'people and things': balls of string; numbered lock boxes; cancellation hammers; ink pads; bundles of letters; pictures of the kings and queens; bags of newspapers; stacks of catalogues. And it was the postmaster who transformed this material complex into a medium of communication that served to integrate 'the economy, society, politics, and culture' and transform 'the rural way of life in Canada well into the 20th century.'

Accordingly, Amyot and Willis strive to reconstruct the 'world of rural postmasters as they lived and worked at the crossroads of rural communication.' To this end, five chapters address the development and role of this 'vibrant institution' in the 1880-1945 period: a profile of Canadian rural society and the postal system that served it; the function and symbolism of postal architecture; the roles and responsibilities of rural postmasters; the social role of the postmaster; and the financial role of the post office as link in a retail system and as a people's bank.

Much of the success of this volume stems from the authors' familiarity with the institutional history of the Canadian postal system as it emerged from former colonial control and evolved into a truly national system committed to meeting the social, economic, cultural, and political needs of an expansive polity. But there is much more here than a mere chronology of structural change. First, a sensitive recourse to qualitative sources allows the voices of twenty-eight former postmasters and postmistresses to pervade the study and ensure a rich reflexive set of commentaries.

Second, this volume is lavishly illustrated. No mere decorative wallpaper, the scores of images communicate themes central to the authors' [End Page 163] messages: details of interior workplaces; the shift from compromise accommodations to a state architecture loaded with symbolic expressions of state power; and the warp and woof of the system of moving, processing, and delivering the mails. Indeed, the colourful array of images of catalogue advertising alone (146-71) is worth the purchase of this book as they bring the words parcel post to life. A sophisticated marshalling of colour printing, artistic imagination, and seductive marketing ensured a major sensory impact in the often drab world of isolated communities as an array of clichéd devices attempted to manipulate distant consumers: classical patriotic tropes for Eaton's in 1904 (155); Montreal's Dupuis Frère's use of Dollard des Ormeaux in 1931-2 (150) and Maurice 'Rocket' Richard in 1951-2 (151); and both Eaton's and Simpson's Norman Rockwellesque family scenes in the 1920-30s (160-1). Taken together, the voices and images complement the textual analysis and make this a truly vibrant study.

All this being said, some areas need a critical comment. One is the overly defensive posture in connection with Quebec rural society: the contemporary claims that French Canadians were 'not a reading people' (50); that Quebec post offices were often located close to the church (56); and that there were fewer post-office savings banks in Quebec than in Ontario or the Maritimes (139). These generalizations emerged from a perusal of many hundreds of petitions and actual...

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