Although winter officially begins in December, in Canada snow may appear as early as October and can last until April. It is natural for Canadians to take up winter sports to keep them healthy and entertained. Consequently, there are many Canadian winter sports postcards from the early twentieth century. Curling, hockey, ice boating, skating, skiing, sleighing, snowshoeing, and tobogganing postcards can be found at any Canadian or American postcard show. The proof is the two real photo postcards with this article were purchased at the Wichita Postcard Club show.
Notable among these winter sports postcards are those from the winter carnivals held in Montreal, Quebec, between 1908-1910. The later events attempted to revive the earlier winter carnivals that Montreal held between 1883-1887 as a mass celebration and an attempt to draw visitors and tourists to that city. The activities in the first year included a curling tournament with visiting rinks competing each night; trotting races on the ice of the St. Lawrence River; hockey matches; many skating and snowshoeing races; a fancy dress carnival; and a concert.
The outstanding success of the first Montreal Winter Carnival prompted a succession of similar events, not only in Montreal, but later at Quebec City, Hamilton, Ottawa, St. Paul, Minnesota, Burlington, Vermont, and Leadville, Colorado. Modern day winter carnivals are celebrated across Canada, especially at Quebec City and Montreal.
The biggest attraction of these early Montreal winter carnivals was the ice palace built anew each year. The first year there was a gigantic structure located on Dominion Square which looked like a medieval castle with towers and turrets. It was 90 feet square with 30 feet towers at each corner and an 80 feet tall, large central column. The walls were constructed with huge blocks of ice, each about 40 by 20 inches, ranging in thickness from 14 to 20 inches. Later ice palaces would be even larger, and they would be built on the slopes of Mount Royal.
The main spectacle at the 1884, and later carnivals was a mock battle and the storming of the ice palace.
With tens of thousands of spectators looking on, an army of thousands who were snowshoers from local sports clubs faced off against the defenders, who were usually government troops, to make a massive assault on the ice castle.
The members of the snowshoeing clubs carried lighted torches and wore their own distinctive colored tuques and sashes. When the siege was to begin, both sides would fire off their rockets which sounded like rifle shots. The deafening blasts of the rockets and balls of fire from the torches gave it the feeling of a real battle. And the different colored lights from the torches, aided by the refraction from the blocks of ice, projected a vivid display of miniature northern lights.
People flocked, sometimes dressed in winter costumes, to see the ice palace at the 1909 Montreal Winter Carnival. Here are two daytime views of the ice palace that year, both of which show its huge size.
Another real photo postcard of this event shows the storming of the ice palace which took place on the evening of February 9, 1909, when the low temperature of the day was a chilly 8 degrees Fahrenheit. However, this nighttime photo is of limited value as the flash powder then in use seems to only have been suitable for use in photography studios or in similar settings such as inside a theater. In this photo we can only see lines of light from the marcher’s torches along with the rocket trails over the ice palace walls and buildings, while the attacking marchers on snowshoes and any spectators remain an invisible presence.
Fortunately, within a year the Illustrated Postcard Company of Montreal published an excellent tinted collotype view of this event, produced by Emil Pinkau & Co. in Germany. It vividly shows the attacking marchers and streaks of fire shooting through the air and the rockets exploding above and around the ice palace.
There was certainly a market for postcards of this event, and many were produced in different formats, a remarkable testament to its popularity and the excitement it generated.
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A comprehensive selection of images for this event can be found
on the website for the Societe D’Histoire Du Plateau-Mont-Royal, see:
https://cpa.histoireplateau.org/album-virtuel/lieux-de-divertissement/le-palais-glace-1909/