Some elements in the development of the national atlas of canada

Summary

The problems of producing an atlas of Canada that shows the nature, extent and use of the physical resources and their effect on the country's economy and society are intensified by the great size of the country, its federal political structure, and its bilingual culture. The work of compiling the information was organized by the Geographical Branch in cooperation with other governmental agencies that either produce maps or have source material. As it was impractical to produce a bilingual atlas, separate English and French editions were prepared, the nomenclature in the French edition being based on local usage, and French equivalents used for the geographical terminology. In addition to providing a record of what is known and unknown, the atlas provides a plan for future geographical research, and will be revised as new data become available. The purpose of presenting this paper is to indicate the problems which were posed by the production of the national atlas of Canada, and the ways in which these problems were dealt with. It is inconceivable that any other country in the world will be faced with precisely the same situations in producing a national atlas. Every country is unique and four simple facts make Canada different from other national states. These are its great size—almost 4,000,000 square miles—the second largest country in the world; its relatively small population—barely 18,000,000; its federal political structure; and its bilingualism in national affairs. Nevertheless, other countries may be able to gain something of value to them from Canadian experience. Atlases that cover a single country or political entity have been produced in increasing numbers since the turn of the century, but Canada was one of the first to produce an atlas of this kind. The first reference Atlas of Canada was published in 1906, and a second, revised edition appeared in 1915. By 1937 the need for a new edition was being felt, and the suggestion that a new atlas should be produced was made in that year by the Canadian Committee of the International Geographical Union (Grant-Suttie, 1947). In January 1943, the Canadian Social Science Research Council appointed a committee “to explore the possibilities of the preparation and publication of a comprehensive Atlas of Canada” and its report concluded that this could best be done in a centralized agency of the federal government (Brouillette, 1948). In December 1948 the Government of Canada decided that the Geographical Branch of the Department of Mines and Technical Surveys* should be entrusted with the task of preparing a new edition. As there were no records of the 1906 and 1915 editions, this was essentially an entirely new project. The first situation that had to be faced was that there were a number of governmental agencies that were either producing maps, or had source material that could be used for producing maps. In order to obtain co-operation and assistance, an interdepartmental committee was established, made up of representatives of the most important of these. Representation was from the Departments of Agriculture, Northern Affairs and National Resources, Fisheries, Transport, and Mines and Technical Surveys, as well as from the Dominion Bureau of Statistics, the Army Survey Establishment, the Canadian Meteorological Service and the Public Archives of Canada.