Decorative pictorial map of “Canada at war”, a 1944 promotional piece by artist Stanley Turner for tea producer, Thomas J. Lipton Ltd

Canada at War published with the Compliments of Thomas J. Lipton Limited

Original colour-printed broadsheet map. One central vertical & one central horizontal fold. With original presentation envelope with imprint of Thomas J Lipton’s HQ Toronto & addressed to recipient in NS. Envelope postmarked Jan 1945. Minor wear to folds and slightest of splits to fold ends in blank margins. Printed colours fresh & bright. With all a very attractive and well-presented example.

Striking 1944 pictorial map of Canada, published & copyrighted by C. C. Petersen, Toronto as a wartime marketing and promotional piece for the Canadian arm of Thomas J. Lipton Limited, the Ceylon Tea producers. Vignettes of boxes of Lipton’s Black & Orange Pekoe Teas and of their Noodle Soup mix attractively embellish the four corners of the map.

The map offers an almost encyclopaedic summation of Canada’s contribution towards the War effort. Tables depict the growth of Canada’s Armed Forces between 1939 and 1943 – the Navy from 1800 to 67000 sailors; the Army from 4500 to just over ten times than number in the same period; and the RCAF from 4000 to fifty times that number in 1943, sufficient to man 38 overseas squadrons. It is also revealed that Canada operates, supplies 50% of the men and pays for 50% of the cost of 154 Flying Schools established under the British Commonwealth Training Plan. The tables also chart the increasingly important role of women in both the Armed forces and the Munitions industry. Further tabulations show the level of employment in different industries, including war production; the increase in industrial output in wartime materials such as pig iron, castings & aluminium; the annual increases in wartime production and a comparison with World War One (by 1943 it was triple the output of 1939 and nearly quadruple that of World War One – an interesting additional note points out that almost all of the Allied 8th Army’s motor transport in North Africa was manufactured in Canada); the increases in Dominion Government spending through the war years; the allocation of manufactured foodstuffs such as cheese, evaporated milk and bacon to Great Britain; the year on year changes in the cost of living; and the important contribution of the Canadian Red Cross, not least in the provision of Prisoner of War Parcels, of which, the table notes, over 10,000 were being sent out each week by 1943.

Short descriptions of each of the Canadian provinces highlight their principal resources and significant industrial war production, whilst the map itself offers a pictorial guide to these regions, with particular reference again to their natural resources and to their industrial and military centres such as Naval Stations & Cadet Schools, Merchant Marine & Army Training Camps & RCAF Flying Bases. Further panels on the right of the map diarize significant milestones in Canada’s war story, from the first declaration of War on Germany on September 10th 1939 and the arrival of the first Canadian troops in Britain in Dec 1939 to the invasion of Sicily by British, Canadian & US forces in July 1943 and the meeting of Churchill, Roosevelt & Canadian Premier MacKenzie King at the Quebec Conference in August 1943.

The map itself is the design of the well-known British-born Canadian commercial artist and designer, Stanley Turner [1883-1953]. Stanley Francis Turner was born in Aylesbury, England on 1st August 1883, the eldest son of Henry Turner [b.1858], a local draper & his wife Ellen Carrick [b.1857]. He studied at the South Kensington School of Art and emigrated to Canada with his parents & 7 siblings in early 1901. The Turners initially settled in Yorkton [Canadian 1901 census] and then moved to MacKenzie township, Saskatchewan [Canadian 1906 census] where they farmed, whilst Stanley continued to pursue his artistic career. He moved to Toronto, Ontario in 1911, initially working in advertising before studying at the Ontario College of Art with George Reid and J.W. Beatty. Turner worked in a variety of mediums including oils, pen and ink, etching and woodblock prints and many of his artworks depict urban scenes, particularly in Toronto and Quebec City. They have been exhibited widely and can be found in the collections of numerous museums and galleries in both Canada and around the World, including the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. His commercial work appeared as illustrations in numerous books and magazines and during World War II he was commissioned by the Canadian national newspaper The Globe and Mail to illustrate a series of war maps. These probably provided a useful background & design template for the production of this larger separately issued Lipton’s map. A revised & amended post-war edition of this map is also known. Turner married the Belgian-born Barbe Jean Deboeck [1888-1969] in Calgary, Alberta in 1911, and by the time of the 1921 Canadian Census the couple are recorded living in York, Ontario with two young children with Turner’s profession listed as “artist”. Turner passed away in Toronto, Ontario on 3rd June 1953 and is buried with his wife in the City’s Mount Pleasant Cemetery.

In all an attractive and unusual pictorial map, highlighting the immensely important role played by Canada in its vital contribution of both natural & industrial resources and manpower to the Allied war effort during World War Two.

 Refs: David Rumsey Collection