Ontario Map 1853 Regional Print - Toronto, Niagara Falls, Hamilton

Samuel Augustus Mitchell drew this map of Canada West, formerly Upper Canada, published by Thomas, Cowperthwait & Co. of Philadelphia in 1853, appearing within that year's edition of Mitchell's Universal Atlas, one of seventy-four maps in a volume bound in half leather with a gold-stamped "Mitchell's Universal Atlas" spine label. This Cowperthwait printing predates by over a decade the later Charles Desilver edition of the same Mitchell design also in our collection, making it the earlier and more original state of the map as Mitchell's firm first issued it. The map was chromolithographed by P.S. Duval of Philadelphia from a drawing by J. Wissler, giving this early edition a specific production pedigree distinct from the plainer engraving methods used on some of Mitchell's other atlas sheets. It covers the region historically known as Upper Canada, renamed Canada West following the 1840 Act of Union, corresponding to present-day southern Ontario.

Two inset maps accompany the main sheet, one of Toronto and its environs and the other of the vicinity of Niagara Falls, the same pairing of insets that would carry through into the later Desilver edition of this design. An explanation chart lists railroads, canals, capitals and important towns, reflecting the increased attention to infrastructure that came with rapid immigration and settlement expansion following the 1840 Act of Union. Lake Huron, Lake Erie and Lake Ontario all appear prominently labeled across the map's Great Lakes coverage, underscoring Canada West's economy of lake-borne trade and transport. Hamilton, positioned at the head of Lake Ontario, anchors the region's developing industrial and rail corridor between Toronto and the Niagara frontier, exactly as it would continue to do in the later 1864 edition of the same underlying map.

This earlier Cowperthwait printing makes a fitting gift for an Ontario family with roots in Canada West's earliest post-Union development, or for a collector wanting the more original of the two Mitchell editions of this design held in our collection. We also carry the later 1864 Charles Desilver printing of this identical Mitchell map; this 1853 Cowperthwait edition predates it by over a decade and reflects the design in its earlier, first publisher's state. 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.