British North America [Canada] map 1844

By permission dedicated to
The Honourable Hudson’s Bay Company
Containing the latest information which
their documents furnish.
By their Obedient Servant
J Arrowsmith.

The British North America map was engraved by John Arrowsmith in 1832, but altered in successive editions through the 1850s as new information reached London. This version has the publication date of 25th April 1844.

It was an exceptionally detailed map for its time, in particular along the West Coast from Monterey north to the Behring Strait. Alaska is shown as Russian America (the United States purchased Alaska from the Russians in 1867). California is part of Mexico (Mexico eventually ceded California to the United States, becoming the 31st state of the union in 1850). British North America was to become the present day Canada after the 1867 British North America Act.

The map also presents fascinating notes of historical interest, for example “In Turton Bay on the South side of Igloolik Island, the Fury and Hecla were frozen up from October 3rd 1822 to August 8th 1823.” This refers to the 1821 Parry expedition in the HMS Hecla and sister ship HMS Fury to find the fabled Northwest Passage.

This map comes from the Collins Bartholomew Historic Map Archive and can be purchased from the Collins Bartholomew shop, Americas category, on the Mapseeker website.

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