“Mundy's Map of Greater Edmonton” print by C. G. Mundy (1912)

The map underneath this coloured mess isn’t too too interesting - it’s a straightforward map put together by C. G. Mundy of the Mundy Map & Blueprint Company from their office at 10080 Jasper Avenue. It might help to think of the black part of this map as an activity sheet, and the coloured part as a short list of places and people who impressed educated Edmontonians at the beginning of the 20th century. 

To explain: when Edmonton and Strathcona amalgamated in 1912, the street grid was zig-zagged with redundant and similar names. City Council then decided to rename every street numerically in 1913, but the citizens of Edmonton pressured City Council to throw a renaming contest of sorts. This map was one of the entries.

The person behind it is unknown, but it’s a map full of gestural writing, wild colour choices, and neighbourhood naming themes that are equally incredible and very of-the-time. The north end is all “European Geographical Names,” the south end entirely “Christian Names”. The north side of Whyte Ave. is “Canadian Prov. Premiers” and south of Whyte you’ll find “English and European Public Men.” Smaller zones were to be named with “Great Battles,” “Public Men of Edmonton,” “Canadian & United States Public Men” zones, etc. 

This wasn’t nominated the “best” naming scheme that involved words. Something called the “Edmonscona Plan” was chosen to go up against the original City Council-backed numbering plan in a 1914 plebiscite. It lost, of course, and you can read all about it via the City Museum of Edmonton’s article on the subject. 

A reproduction available at 12” or 24” square on Epson Enhanced Matte 192 gsm paper printed with Epson UltraChrome XD2 archival ink. Sold in an open edition, unframed. Based on a digital file from the City of Edmonton Archives.