Imperial Federation, map of the world showing the extent of the British Empire in 1886

This map by Walter Crane, a British artist most famous for his illustrations in children’s books and paintings with mythical themes, is a world map that he designed for the Colonial and Indian Exhibition in South Kensington in London in 1886. The Colonial and Indian Exhibition was opened by Queen Victoria to “stimulate commerce and strengthen the bonds of union now existing in every portion of Her Majesty's Empire” according to the Prince of Wales, who would later be King Edward VII. The map depicts a world map with the United Kingdom at the centre, with arrows connecting the United Kingdom to their various areas of control across the globe that made up the British Empire, whose territory peaked during the reign of King George V, Queen Victoria’s grandson who was King from King Edward VII’s death in 1910 and until his own death in 1936. Key dominions of the British Empire, such as Canada, Cape Colony in modern-day South Africa, India, Australia and New Zealand in red. On the top of the map are three women in red hats that resemble Marianne’s holding banners that each read, “Freedom,” “Fraternity,” and “Federation.” Surrounding the map at the left, centre and right at the bottom are personifications of different countries, with Britannia, a female personification of the United Kingdom, at the very centre.