Nova Scotia 1903 Shaded Relief Map

By 1903, Cape Breton's coal and steel industry was in full swing. American businessman Henry Whitney had founded the Dominion Coal Company a decade earlier, then built a steel plant at Sydney Mines to consume the coal his mines produced — the first steel poured on the last day of 1901. The vertically integrated operation made Nova Scotia one of Canada's industrial centers, though the high sulfur content of Cape Breton coal would plague the plant's furnaces for decades to come.

We georeferenced the original 1903 survey and applied modern digital elevation data to add true shaded relief to Nova Scotia's coastline and highlands. The shading is printed flat on the paper — not raised or textured — so it frames and hangs like any fine art print.

Available unframed, or framed in black or walnut.

Note on legibility: text on the original map is small and can be difficult to read given the map's age. In areas where the relief shading is darkest, the underlying labels are not legible. We recommend the largest available size for the best detail.