Maps Ride Along
Before global positioning systems, maps by Rand McNally and Gousha, along with guide books by the American Automobile Association and others, were fixtures in car glove compartments.
1904 Rand McNally’s first road map shows streets in and around New York City. 1906 AAA’s Official Automobile Blue Book recasts traditional bicycling guides for motorists.
1911 Trail to Sunset by AAA covers a route from New York to Jacksonville, Florida. It’s a precursor to TripTiks, the club’s spiral-bound, custom route guides.
1917 A highway numbering system on Rand McNally’s new map of Peoria, Illinois, becomes a model for the system used across the country today.
1924 Auto Chum is the first edition in what will become the popular Rand McNally Road Atlas.
1926 Harry M. Gousha, former head of Rand McNally’s Auto Trails department, forms his own business to make route maps for oil companies.
The folding maps are given out for free at gas stations. 1936 Gousha creates
Touraide guides for Conoco (Continental Oil Co.), custom, spiral-bound booklets of maps and accommodations that Conoco customers order in advance of a road trip. Unlike TripTiks and other similar club guides, which require a paid membership,
Touraides are provided free of charge.
The same year, New York mail carrier Victor Hugo Green publishes his first guide for African American travelers. (See page 30.)
1940 Thomas Bros. Maps relocates to Los Angeles. The company’s fold-up maps, designed to fit in a man’s suit pocket, are popular with California travelers.
1945 Thomas Bros. creates a trendsetting travel guide sized to fit in a car’s glove compartment.
1960 The Rand McNally
Road Atlas is published in full color for the first time.
1967 Commercial printer R.R. Donnelley & Sons creates a cartography division to produce free gas station maps.
1996 Donnelley’s former road map division, now independent, launches
MapQuest.com, a website with printable point-to-point driving directions.
2010 AAA offers a free TripTik application for the Apple iPhone.