1955 Historic Trading Posts and Territories of the Governor & Company of Adventurers of England Trading into Hudson's Bay
DESCRIPTION
Filled with explorers, trading posts, ships, wildlife, Indigenous communities, and episodes from nearly three centuries of northern history, this engaging pictorial map transforms the vast territory of the Hudson's Bay Company into a sprawling visual narrative of exploration, trade, and settlement.
Drawn by Canadian pictorial cartographer Stanley Turner, this c. 1955 second revision of Historic Trading Posts and Territories of the Governor & Company of Adventurers of England Trading into Hudson's Bay traces the extraordinary reach of the Hudson's Bay Company, founded by royal charter in 1670. From its early posts along Hudson Bay, the company developed an immense network extending across much of present-day Canada, becoming one of the most consequential commercial enterprises in the exploration and development of North America.
Mapping the Fur Trade and Exploration of North America
Turner fills the map with hundreds of historical and pictorial details. Hudson's Bay Company posts are identified alongside rival trading posts, Royal Canadian Mounted Police stations, transportation routes, explorers' journeys, Indigenous nations, fur-bearing animals, and natural resources. Historic figures and events range from Prince Rupert and Henry Hudson to the Franklin expedition, while ships, canoes, dog teams, aircraft, railroads, and trading scenes illustrate the changing means by which this enormous region was explored and connected. A legend distinguishes HBC posts and routes from those of the North West Company and other historical networks, allowing the map to function as both an entertaining pictorial work and a remarkably dense history of the Canadian fur trade.
The map extends well beyond the boundaries of Canada. Alaska, the northern United States, the Great Lakes, and the former French territory of Louisiana provide a broader North American setting for the company's story. Particularly prominent are the waterways that served as the continent's earliest transportation corridors, connecting Hudson Bay with the interior long before railroads or modern highways. Indigenous peoples appear throughout the map because their knowledge, trade networks, and participation were fundamental to the fur trade, although Turner's illustrations and terminology also preserve the simplified conventions through which Indigenous cultures were frequently presented to midcentury audiences.
Identifying the 2nd State of the Map
Turner first developed the map in the late 1930s and subsequently revised it as the Hudson's Bay Company continued to promote its remarkable history. This example corresponds to the c. 1955 second revision, a dating supported by Library and Archives Canada, which records separate versions from 1938, 1955, and 1969. Hudson's Bay Company records likewise identify the first version with the 1939 calendar and the second with the 1955 calendar. The substantially redesigned 1969 issue is explicitly identified as the “Third revision” and incorporates changes to the title cartouche and pictorial content not found on this example. The absence of that designation, together with the design and content of the present map, identifies it with Turner's midcentury second state.
CONDITION
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