Journal of Design History Advance Access originally published online on July 25, 2008
Journal of Design History 2008 21(3):237-257; doi:10.1093/jdh/epn024
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Designing Meaning: Streamlining, National Identity and the Case of Locomotive CN6400
Curator of Transportation
Canada Science and Technology Museum
Email: gwilson{at}technomuses.ca
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Abstract |
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This paper will explore the role of design in shaping the meaning of an important artefact of Canadian transportation history and heritage: the semi-streamlined steam locomotive CN6400. The intention is to demonstrate how careful consideration of the artefact, within the contexts of design, construction and use can greatly enhance our cultural understanding of the technology. CN6400 has enjoyed prominent display at the Canada Science and Technology Museum (officially the National Museum of Science and Technology) since its opening in 1967. The article will show how this artefact served as an important intersection of both technological and social aspirations during a period of economic upheaval and evolving national identity in Canada. To understand its full meaning ultimately requires that one looks beyond its well-documented technical biography as a Canadian-designed streamlined steam locomotive, and reflects on its larger cultural identity as the embodiment of important and powerful images and ideas. From this perspective, its static life as a quasi-architectural feature of the museum proves to be much less an overt contradiction of its original social function—as is the problematic fate of so many artefacts of motive power—and much more a natural extension, even perhaps a completion, of it.
Key Words: Canada • locomotives • material culture • museums • national identity • streamlining