Norman L. Nicholson · 1960
Nicholson records that Canada's first reference atlases appeared in 1906 and 1915, both in English, and that by 1937 demand was felt for a new edition reflecting Canada's bilingual national affairs. He adds that no records of the earlier editions survived, so the postwar National Atlas was treated as an entirely new project.
N. L. Nicholson; M. R. Chaudhuri · 1965
Nicholson compares the 1906 and 1915 Atlas of Canada as part of his account of how national atlases register changes in knowledge, cartography and economic life. He finds their coverage broadly similar, emphasizing physical geography, especially climate and forests, transportation and communication, and population distribution and origins. The principal change in 1915 was expanded urban coverage: Regina, Edmonton and Victoria gained maps, while several eastern cities received more space. Nicholson connects these changes to urban growth and western development. The 1915 volume also added a world map and omitted the telephone maps included in 1906.
Nicholson identifies limited mapping of economic activity and the absence of detailed Arctic maps and glacier coverage as shortcomings of both volumes. Economic statistics were nevertheless presented extensively in charts and diagrams: these occupied 44 sheets, about 53 percent of the 1906 volume, falling to 34 percent in 1915. Both volumes used east and west topographic sheets at 1:6,336,000; he judges the 1915 sheets more accurate and visually attractive, noting less generalized contours and added water depths. Both were published only in English.
Claire Gosson · 2006
In her account of the Atlas of Canada program, Claire Gosson describes the 1906 edition presented by James White and its 1915 revision under his successor, Épiphane Challifour. The first edition combined predominantly small-scale maps of physical geography, population, communications, exploration and political boundaries with plans of major cities. It used three principal scales for national, eastern and western, and regional coverage; 6,000 copies were printed, including 2,000 bound as a preliminary edition, and it was out of print within two years. Gosson explains that the 1915 edition retained most subjects while incorporating the northward provincial boundary extensions of 1912 and population data from the 1911 census. It also changed some colours, added a world Mercator map and plans of Edmonton, Regina and Victoria, and removed two maps concerning telephones and telegraphs.
