Sujet

Opening of the first railway in New Zealand, at Christchurch, Canterbury Province, 1864. Creator: Unknown.

Légende

Opening of the first railway in New Zealand, at Christchurch, Canterbury Province, 1864. Engraving from a sketch by Mr. R. Kelly. Canterbury was the first province '...to introduce the railway locomotive and the electric telegraph...The event...was one of no ordinary interest to the province, and drew together a large number of the inhabitants. Trains continued to run up and down throughout the day, and afforded gratuitous rides, as well as immense amusement, to crowds of colony-bred young people, to whom a ride in a railway-train was, perhaps, a novelty; as well as to many others, who had not enjoyed that mode of conveyance since they emigrated from the old country...The Lyttelton and Christchurch line is the beginning of a system of railways, to be carried to the north and south of the Canterbury province, which will open up millions of acres of splendid alluvial plain that lie between the coast line and the snow-capped ranges of the Southern Alps. Our Engraving takes in a distant view of those mountains, which, covered with perpetual snow, and as high as those of Switzerland, form the backbone of the Middle Island of New Zealand, traversing almost its whole length, and leaving a space of some fifty miles in width along its eastern shore'. From "Illustrated London News", 1864.

Crédit

Photo12/Heritage Images/The Print Collector

Notre référence

HRM24A25_402

Model release

NA

Property release

NA

Licence

Droits gérés

Format disponible

18,5Mo (1,4Mo) / 33,0cm x 14,1cm / 3895 x 1661 (300dpi)

Mots clés

transport transportation unusual female women woman people male group crowd crowds man men opening ceremony railways train arts flag flags entertainment art guy British celebrations ceremonial railway color New Zealand colony station celebration celebrating innovation railway line railway station Victorian century amusement Colonial banner railway tracks train station public transport Britain train track steam train enjoyment first newspapers railway track press enjoying print South Island concept B&W Christchurch standard engraved engraving Canterbury Colour 19th century black & white black and white B W white and black nineteenth century Opening Ceremony steam locomotive The Print Collector colonialism Illustrated London News TGN ILN newspaper Unknown colonists 19th-century