Manitoba Map 1929 Pictorial Print - Winnipeg, Hudson Bay, Brandon

Oliver Master wrote the text and Arthur Edward Elias supplied the drawings for this Animated Map of Manitoba, published by the Canada Department of the Interior in 1929 as part of the Dominion of Canada's Animated Atlas, a nine-map series using humorous illustration to convey each region's distinct economic assets. The atlas represented a deliberately playful departure from conventional government cartography, aimed at making geography and economics more accessible and entertaining for a broad general audience during a period when Canadian federal agencies were actively promoting settlement and investment across the Prairie provinces. Subtitled "The Artist Suggests Good Sport," this Manitoba map leans specifically into the province's recreational appeal, populating its landscape with characters and animals illustrating the province's wildlife, agriculture and outdoor opportunities rather than relying on conventional political or topographic symbols alone.

Illustrations of deer, bears and other wildlife highlight Manitoba's natural environment throughout the map, while scenes of trains and farming underscore the province's economic foundations in transport and agriculture. Fishing and hunting scenes appear prominently, aimed squarely at promoting the province's outdoor recreational opportunities to a potential audience of settlers and tourists alike. Hudson Bay anchors the map's northeastern geography, a defining feature of Manitoba's vast northern reach, while Winnipeg, the provincial capital, is marked as the region's principal urban center amid the surrounding illustrated farmland and wilderness. This blend of genuine geographic reference and lighthearted illustration reflects the broader educational trends of the period, aiming to engage general audiences with content that a purely conventional map could not.

This whimsical map makes a fun, collectible gift for a Manitoba family with roots in Winnipeg or the province's rural communities, or for a collector drawn to the playful side of official government cartography from the interwar years. We also carry a more conventional 1925 Cram atlas map of Manitoba; where that earlier map offers standard political and geographic detail, this 1929 Animated Atlas map takes a deliberately illustrated, humorous approach to the same province. It ships unframed and is available in the full range of sizes we offer, from a compact desk print to a large-format piece for a study or office wall.