1927 Canadian Pacific Bird's-Eye View Map of Canadian Rocky Mountains

This 1927 Canadian Pacific Railway pictorial map of the Canadian Rocky Mountains in Alberta and British Columbia was created to cultivate outdoor adventure tourism.

A Closer Look

Oriented toward the northeast, the Canadian Pacific Railway cuts across the mountains from top-right towards bottom-left. Roads and highways shadow the railroad's route, hinting at the imminent decline of passenger rail travel. An adventurer's playground, the map highlights miles of hiking trails, unobtrusively reinforcing the opportunity available to the outdoor enthusiast. Hotels and campsites are also noted. Tourists' favorites, such as Lake Louise and Banff, are emphasized. On the other hand, the lines of the competing Canadian National Railway are not included, obscured by the title box at top-left.

Canadian Pacific Railway Network Map

A Canadian Pacific Railway network map occupies the verso. Canadian Pacific's extensive network is highlighted in red, with all stops labeled. Cities within the United States printed in red have Canadian Pacific offices. Major railroads within the United States are traced and labeled, with major stops identified.

Publication History and Census

This map was compiled and drawn under the supervision of Arthur O. Wheeler and published by the Canadian Pacific Railway Company in 1927. This appears to be a scarce printing of this map; the OCLC notes several institutions holding a map printed in the U.S.A., while the present example was lithographed by Ralph Clark Stone in Toronto. Some examples are copyrighted to 1927 but are noted as 'corrected to October 1928' in the bottom-right corner of the recto (including an example previously sold by us; the two can be easily distinguished by the word 'Pacific' in the title here). The inclusion of 1926 below the scale bar in the title box in the recto only confuses matters more.

We are unable to verify other examples of this printing of the map (in Canada, not corrected to 1928) in institutional collections, but due to the complications just mentioned, it is possible that some of the examples listed in the OCLC were also printed in Toronto, especially those held by Canadian institutions (the University of Calgary, the Library and Archives Canada, and the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec).