Egham and the Empire: The Map of Empire

One of the most famous pieces of imperial material culture ever produced was ‘The Empire Map’, with Britain’s imperial territories marked out in pink. Even today, this is what many people instantly think of when discussing the British Empire and its legacy.

This map [1] was produced as part of a ‘Empire Writing Booklet’, which was produced for the local Conservative club and published at a time when Egham was part of a constituency with Chertsey. Various facts about well-known dominions of empire are placed around the map, with a distinct focus on food. The lines that can be seen across the map are the various shipping routes of imports and trade. An ordinary person could therefore clearly see the expanse of the British Empire and the sum of its own imperial achievements.

During this time imperial popular culture placed more of an emphasis on the economic benefit of empire. This had been particularly emphasised by the work of the Empire Marketing Board during the late 1920s and early 1930s, whose iconic posters often stressed the foodstuff connections throughout the empire. One of its most well-known campaigns was to encourage Britons to ‘Buy Empire Goods’, instead of those imported from non-imperial territories The population statistics seen surrounding the map suggest that the process of settling various territories had been successful and should be celebrated as an achievement of imperial progress.

Notice the phrase ‘Everywhere Room For Expansion!’’. By the 1920s and 1930s, imperial popular culture represented the empire more as an international community. This was very different to the aggressively imperial propaganda produced only a few decades before, which often supported continuing imperial conquest and control through power and violence. This map highlights that late imperial popular culture did in many cases align with earlier beliefs and in fact remained present throughout British society.