Here’s another beautiful vintage transit map, this time from Winnipeg, Canada. It’s around the same age as this great map from Portland, Oregon, and displays a similarly austere wartime aesthetic. The map is printed in just three colours (black, red and green) and – apart from some of the typography in the legend –  is entirely hand-drawn and lettered.

Important buildings and points of interest are all carefully and charmingly rendered, but the real winners for me are the numerous golf courses dotted around the city. On the fairways and greens are miniature golf players, most of whom seem to be having a very bad day on the course indeed.

Some other elements are slightly less successful, such as the poorly-drawn scroll around the downtown Winnipeg inset, but overall, this is a charming and whimsical map.

One final point of interest is the obvious replacement of the original streetcar network (solid green routes) by buses (red routes). By 1955 – just 14 years after this map was produced – the streetcar tracks were ripped up, and trolleybuses were phased out in 1970.

Our rating: A charming little slice of history. Red and green aren’t the best colours to use for differentiating service modes, but I doubt a lot of thought was put into that back in 1941. Ticked-off cartoon golfers elevate this to a four star rating.

Source: Manitoba Historical Maps/Flickr