The Peter Winkworth Collection of Canadiana is a unique art collection which documents four centuries of Canadian history and focuses on exploration, settlement, trade, industry and urban growth, and developments in society, art and literature. It is invaluable for its scope and content as a visual history of Canada. The collection includes such well-known artists as Edward Roper, Peter Rindisbacher, and Frances Anne Hopkins. This is the single largest acquisition of works of art which Canada has ever seen. Historical themes highlighted in the collection include The Seven Years'' War, General Wolfe and his officers, aboriginal life in North America, Arctic exploration, the War of 1812, the Rebellions of 1837-1838, Montreal, Quebec, and Niagara Falls, and the history of Canadian printmaking. Much of the material, even the prints, is unique and not held in any other public institution in the world. Included are a wide range of subjects and individuals: portraits and views of the life of First Nations peoples, portraits of colonial officials, administrators, naval and military officers, explorers, politicians, and other celebrated Canadians; flora and fauna, including rare wildflowers, animals, and birds depicted by such artists as John James Audubon, Maria Miller, and John Edwards; scenes of settlement, industry, trade, commerce, transport, and agriculture, by artists including Cornelius Krieghoff, James Pattison Cockburn, Frances Anne Hopkins, John H. Caddy, Edward Roper, Edward Richardson, Alicia Killaly, James Duncan, Henri Julien, Emile Petitot, and many others; views of towns and cities across Canada; records of events and disasters, including battles, ship launchings, shipwrecks, fires, floods, and tempests; and images of everyday life. Views of the Seven Years'' War and the War of 1812 are well-represented. The history of Canadian printmaking can also be discerned through an examination of the print collection, which represents many media, and a wide variety of unique items, including a copper plate etched in Canada in 1781; a set of early lithographs showing the construction of the Chaudiere Falls bridges across the Ottawa in 1827; and a portrait print of Lord Elgin and his wife done in Toronto in 1847, among others. Finally there are significant and unique views of the 1885 Rebellion in western Canada, and of the Yukon Gold Rush.

The collection includes ca. 600 watercolours, 8 paintings, ca. 3300 prints, 6 albums containing ca. 100 watercolours, 27 volumes of prints containing ca. 200 prints, 20 miscellaneous items, ca. 30 maps.