Series consists of records created and/or maintained by the Canadian National Railway's Public Relations Department. The records include: Tourist marketing literature dating from 1929-1959. The literature promoted various CNR services in Canada and abroad, including steamships and telegraphs. Included within these records are timetables, travel pamphlets and booklets (some with attached maps), menus, posters, Christmas and Easter cards, and postcards. Most tourist booklet covers, particularly from the 1920s and 1930s, are in colour and include stylized artwork, and many of the booklets contain black and white photographs of various scenic locations in Canada and elsewhere. This material can be found in volumes 14783 - 14804. See lower level sub-series CNR Tourist Publications for more details. Employee public relations files, which document the careers of various notable CN and associated services managers and other high profile employees. Each file can contain synoptical employment histories, copies of newspaper clippings, newsprint quality portrait proofs, notices of promotion, copies of press releases and other forms of documentation. There are related employee photographs, which can be found in a lower-level sub-series, and these can be found in volumes 16180-16185. Other photos can be found in another more general lower level sub-series. In this lower-level sub-series, there are photos of scenes across Canada, railway cars, steamships, hotels, and various passenger trains. These photographs can be found in volumes 15816 - 15822
Canadian National Railways. Public Relations : The Public Relations Department's role was/is to advance the public reputation of Canadian National Railways and its associated services, and to ensure public support for the welfare of the Railway system. The duties of this Department therefore covered every form of advertising and publicity work for the all inclusive railway system and associated services such as steamships. The principle medium of promotional advertisement was through the daily newspapers, magazines, radio and television, while a second most favored category was through the issuance of tourist, hotel and steamship booklets, leaflets and dodgers (circulars). The department began in the early 1920s as the Advertising Bureau under the directorship of Billy Robinson. The bureau was responsible for creating, among other things, the Canadian National Railways Magazine. During the mid-1930s, the then named Publicity Department was composed of various `services' including press, Advertising, Photographic and Display and Magazines, and in addition to headquarters, regional offices were located in London, New York, Toronto, Moncton, Winnipeg and Vancouver. Additional offices were eventually established in Ottawa, Chicago and London, England. Over time changes were made to the organizational structure, and included a News Service, the issuance of a Daily Report (compilation of selected press reports, editorials and the like) and an employee magazine that was published in English and French, beginning January 1958. From the late 1950s onward a subsection of the Public Relations Department was called the Visual Redesign Program and later, the Corporate Identification Program. Subjects covered include: design and application of the new CN, CV (Central Vermont) and GT (Grand Trunk) corporate symbols, revised equipment colour schemes, visual redesign studies for CN Ferry Terminals and CN Autobus Service Newfoundland and design and use of the CN Hotels' Red Key Symbol. The program was also responsible for the interior design of the Turbo Train
