Volume 2, Number 4, July-August 2006

Terra Nostra: The Stories Behind Canada's Maps, 1550-1950

Terra Nostra, McGill-Queen's University Press, 2006 Source

Library and Archives Canada is pleased to announce the release of its first major publication in almost 15 years, Terra Nostra: The Stories Behind Canada's Maps, 1550-1950.

Co-published by les éditions du Septentrion and Library and Archives Canada, Terra Nostra is a celebration of 400 years of Canadian mapmaking. Researched and written by Senior Archivist Jeffrey S. Murray, Terra Nostra draws on the collections of Library and Archives Canada to offer an engaging, highly illustrated, full-colour publication that spans the entire gamut of mapmaking: from the early portolan charts of the first explorers to more recent computerized cartography.

With more than 1.7 million maps, plans, charts and atlases in its collection, Library and Archives Canada retains the world's single largest geographical description of the Canadian landscape. Through the aid of modern technologies, this national resource, which is carefully preserved for the future, is becoming increasingly known and accessible to the world.

View of Brantford, Ontario, 1893 Source

Terra Nostra highlights these extraordinary holdings and reveals the stories behind their making. It unlocks the secrets of some of our country's most valued cartographic pieces and tells of the people who created these artifacts, why they were made and how they influenced the lives of Canadians. It highlights the unique role maps have played in helping Canadians to conceptualize the world and their place in it.

Terra Nostra was published to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the first national atlas of Canada and was released in June at the 2006 GeoTec conference in Ottawa. A cartographic milestone, the 1906 Atlas of Canada is featured in the publication, as it was the first national atlas in the western hemisphere and one that has been copied many times by many counties. Terra Nostra celebrates this legacy along with some 200 other cartographic treasures to present a Canadian view of the world over four centuries.

Copies of Terra Nostra may be obtained through the Friends of Library and Archives Canada by contacting Georgia Ellis at 613-943-1544 or webservices@lac-bac.gc.ca. Alternatively, copies can be ordered online by visiting the websites of les éditions du Septentrion at www.septentrion.qc.ca/eng/ (English and French editions) or McGill-Queen's University Press at www.mqup.mcgill.ca (English edition only).

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