“York 1834 Now Incorporated as the City of Toronto” print by Esther G. A. Foster (1934)

Esther G. A. Foster was a Canadian nurse who served in France in 1914, and her sole known artistic work is this vivid and fantasy-esque watercolour of early Toronto from 1934. It shows the Toronto of a hundred years previous (York, as it was known) and was released as a souvenir of the city's 100th birthday. Buildings are shown in bright red and numerous historical happenings and places are noted in hand-written text. I'd write more about it, but it's the kind of image that speaks for itself. 

While my Paper Cities images are usually sold in an open edition, note that I only have the license to sell 24 copies of this print; grab one now if you're feeling anxious about it. How did I attain those reprint rights? Through the Canadian Copyright Act's unlocatable copyright owners provision, a process that took six months to complete and involved conversations with the University of Toronto Archives, the City of Toronto Archives, the Toronto Star's photo editor, and the Canadian War Museum. Only a handful of such "orphan works" applications are approved in Canada every year, and I'm happy to report this was one of them. 

A reproduction available at 12x12" or 24x24" on Epson Enhanced Matte 192 gsm paper printed with Epson UltraChrome XD2 archival ink. Sold in a limited number, unframed. Restored from this object found in the University of Toronto Library.