Historic Cartography

Historical Maps of Nova ScotiaMaps convey geographic information about places and help us to better understand topography,  environment, culture and more.

Cartography is the art and science of making maps is an old profession that has been practiced since ancient Babylonia times. Back them, most maps were created for navigation purposes and to help depict territorial regions.

Canada is a relative young country (when compared to others) and thus experienced many years of European exploration that resulted in the creation of many maps that tried to show part of the world that had not been mapped before.

The “Historic Cartography” section of our site was created to explore the many great sources of vintage cartography in Canada. From detailed hand drawn maps by early explorers whom created and documented some of the earliest spatial representations of Canada to maps that focus on nature, the north, and our people.

The following pages listed below are related to Historic Cartography …

1895 Ottawa Panoramic Map

1895 Ottawa Panoramic Map

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This 1895 Ottawa panoramic map provides viewers an oblique aerial view in a south direction from the east looking west up the Ottawa river. It contains detailed sketches of several principal business buildings at that time, that are displayed around the edges of the map. You also get a look at the transit rail system and a view of Parliament Hill before the big fire in 1916. Find out how to get a high resolution copy of this historic map ....
Historical Maps of Nova Scotia

Historical Maps of Nova Scotia

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The Province of Nova Scotia provides online access to a variety of maps and survey plans from historic map collections, find out how you can download some of these historic maps of Nova Scotia ...
Online Toronto Historic Maps comparison tool

Online Toronto Historic Maps comparison tool

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An online mapping tool of Toronto has been providing users the ability to compare locations in Toronto through various periods of time from 2013 back to 1818. Check out this neat online mapping application that helps promote historic maps of Toronto ...
W. H. Pugsley Collection of Early Canadian Maps (1556 to 1857)

W. H. Pugsley Collection of Early Canadian Maps (1556 to 1857)

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In 1971-72 Dr. William Howard Pugsley, donated his collection of early Canadian maps that he had collected during the late 1930s and World War II. Download digital scans of these 50 early Canadian historical maps published between 1556 to 1857 that help explain the discovery and exploration of early North America.
Manitoba Historical Maps

Historical Maps of Manitoba

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If you are looking for Manitoba Historical Maps then you will want to check out the 1000+ maps of Winnipeg, Brandon and other regions of Manitoba that are now scanned and available online.
Historical Maps of Toronto

Historical Maps of Toronto

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Historical Maps have existed in libraries & various personal collections for years but thanks to advancement in digital technology and the internet, we have started to see more old maps being shared in the geospatial community. The Historical Maps of Toronto blog provides simple and free access to a large selection of notable historical maps of the Toronto area that have been scanned from collections at the Toronto Library and the Toronto archives.
Alberta Historical Orthophotos

Historical Orthophotos of Alberta

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Historical Orthophotos of Alberta contains georeferenced orthophoto maps consisting of aerial photography mainly from 1949 to 1951 with coverage for the whole province. It also contains various maps created with photos from 1961 to 1963. Each of the original maps covers a 1:50,000 NTS sheet at a scale of 1:63,360. To download the georeferenced orthophoto maps ...
Bird's-eye view of Victoria

Bird’s-eye view of Victoria, BC

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Today we wanted to share an image that has been posted all over the internet lately, it is a bird's-eye perspective view image of Victoria, British Columbia illustrated by E. S. Glover, A.L. Bancroft and Co., and published by M.W. Waitt & Co. in 1878
Interactive Historical Maps of Fredericton,

Interactive Historical Maps of Fredericton

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A collection of historical maps and plans of Fredericton, New Brunswick are freely available to the general public.They have been georeferenced so that they can be visualized with various mapping applications (Google maps, Bing maps, Google Earth, ArcGIS etc.), includes metadata and tools for searching have been incorporated.