Eastern Canada Map 1858 Regional Print - Toronto, Montreal, Quebec City, Halifax

G.W. Colton and Richard Swainson Fisher produced this map of the British Provinces in Canada for Colton's Illustrated Cabinet Atlas and Descriptive Geography, published by J.H. Colton in New York in 1859, though the underlying map work is dated 1858. This smaller-format companion to Colton's larger General Atlas was a one-time publishing effort, never reissued in its original cabinet-atlas form, though its individual maps were reused in some of Colton's later school atlases. Fisher's accompanying text, minus its sections on American states and territories, was later reused in Johnson's Family Atlas starting in 1861, giving this atlas an influence beyond its own single edition. The map divides its coverage into a British Provinces Western Portion and Eastern Portion, corresponding to Canada West and Canada East, capturing the two provinces less than a decade before Canadian Confederation would unite them into a single Dominion in 1867.

Four inset maps accompany the main sheet, detailing the vicinity of the Niagara River, Toronto, Montreal and Quebec City, giving readers close-up views of the era's four most significant Canadian urban centers on a single page. Toronto anchors Canada West's inset coverage, reflecting the city's growing importance in the western province, while Montreal and Quebec City together represent Canada East's twin poles of commercial and administrative power along the St. Lawrence River. The atlas's broader Illustrated Cabinet format was intended to be particularly readable, its physical geography text drawing on the Atlas of Milner and Petermann published in London, and the whole work was lavishly illustrated with hundreds of etchings covering a wide range of geographical subjects. Together the four city insets situate pre-Confederation Canada as a country still organized around its two founding provinces rather than the coast-to-coast Dominion it would soon become.

A well-suited gift for a family with roots spanning both Ontario and Quebec, or for a Toronto, Montreal or Quebec City transplant interested in the pre-Confederation geography that once separated Canada West from Canada East. Its four-city inset format sets it apart from single-city plans elsewhere in our Canadian collection, offering a genuinely comparative view of the era's leading urban centers on one sheet. It's supplied unframed and available across our full range of sizes, from a small desk print to a large-format piece for a bigger wall.