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Introduction to the Cartographic Records of the Archives of Manitoba

The Archives of Manitoba has over 20,000 maps and plans relating to the growth and development of Manitoba. The map collection also has limited coverage of secondary geographic areas including the Prairie Provinces, northwestern Ontario and Canada. The Archives of Manitoba acquires cartographic records from both the public and private sectors. Additional resources include atlases, gazetteers, fire insurance plans, land records and secondary publications.

The Archives' thematic and topographic holdings contain information useful for historical, cartographic and geographic research. Notable thematic holdings include land disposition maps, railway plans and profiles showing the extension of prairie railway networks, electoral division maps, maps illustrating the development of trails and highways, and municipal boundary maps. The collection also includes thousands of original maps of Manitoba, produced by the Department of the Interior between 1871 and 1930, including township and parish plans in both base and cadastral format. Topographic holdings consist of older editions of the National Topographic System and Sectional maps which can be employed in time-series analysis of various cultural and physical themes.

The map collection is valuable for family and community history. Land ownership in the province, from the latter half of the nineteenth century to the early twentieth century, can be traced by studying  township plans, parish plans and Cummins Rural Directory Map series. Researchers can learn about the development of their communities by consulting thematic and topographic map holdings.

Urban holdings include copies of retrospective and small-scale plans of various Manitoba communities. Coverage of Winnipeg, although not exhaustive, is balanced, and includes subdivision plans, ward atlases, administrative maps and interesting items such as birds’ eye views. Fire insurance plans, which provide detailed information on urban buildings, are available for Winnipeg and some Manitoba communities. Several time periods are represented in the fire insurance plans.

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