On this day in 1924, publisher Rand McNally released the first of its famous guide books, the Rand McNally Auto Chum.
This Day in History Class is a production of I Heart Radio, Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class, a show that cruises the highways of history one day at a time. I'm Gay Bluesier, and in this episode, we're talking about a milestone in automotive history, the day when a publisher made navigating America's roads and highways a whole lot easier. The day was April four, publisher Rand McNally released the first of its famous guide books, the Rand McNally Auto Chum. As the friendly name suggests, the book was meant to help drivers find their way during the early days of the automobile. That was no easy feed. At the time, Inner states didn't exist yet, and most of the highways that did were identified by names instead of numbers, many by the same name. The Auto Chum did its best to solve the confusion by including up to date travel information and detailed hand drawn maps. The maps probably would have been more useful in full color, but that change wouldn't be made until the nineteen sixty edition. For the first edition, drivers had to make do with just two colors, dark blue and red. Despite these shortcomings, the Rand McNally Auto Chum was still a turning point for auto travel. By making it easier to navigate the roads, the book gave people the courage to drive farther and more often, instead of only when strictly necessary. In the decades to come, the company continued to develop and refine the concept of a road atlas, eventually turning the Rand McNally Road Atlas into a glove box staple throughout the country. The publisher got its start in the eighteen fifties when a printer from Boston named William Rand moved to Chicago and opened his own print shop. He was quickly joined in the venture by Andrew McNally, an Irish immigrant and a trained printer himself. They worked together for many years, and in eighteen sixty eight they formed an official partnership called Rand McNally and Company. At first, they published nothing but business directories and railroad timetables, but they soon branched out into railroad guides as well. In eighteen seventy two, the company included its first map in one of these guides, and then followed it up by producing maps for textbooks and globes. They even developed a new wax engraving method that made it possible to mass produce maps at a much more affordable price. Gradually, matt making became the company's main focus, and by eighteen eighty Rand mcnah lley was the largest map manufacturer in the country. At the turn of the twentieth century, vast networks of new roads had begun to take shape in America, and Rand McNally realized the potential in being the first company to map those roads. In nineteen o four, it released its first automotive road map, setting the course of the company for decades to come. It was not a moment too soon either. Andrew McNally died that same year, and William Rand followed in nineteen fifteen, nine years before the Auto Chum hit store shelves. The company continued down the new automotive path set by its founders, and as car travel gained in popularity, the market for its products grew larger and larger. There was a problem, though, America's roads were growing in a rather thoughtless fashion. Not only were most of them unmarked, many didn't even have names. This meant that in order to get from one ace to another, drivers had to refer to thick printed guides and try to make sense of the convoluted directions they're in. For example, here's how in nineteen fourteen, route Book explained part of the journey from Green Bay to Wausau, Wisconsin. Quote turn left passing hotel, barn on right, cross iron bridge, around mill, follow winding sandy road with poles, through woods, avoiding left hand road, pick up poles, passing school on left, turn right with road across railroad at station, follow poles. As you can probably tell, navigating the roads wasn't an intuitive process and success was hardly guaranteed. To combat the problem, Rand McNally announced a contest in nineteen sixteen. Any employee who could improve the system would earn a one dollar reward plus bragging rights. The winning idea came I'm a freelance map illustrator named John Brink. His solution was simple as sign a number to each road, label the roads by number on maps, and post the numbers on roadside signs so that drivers could tell where they were. Brink won the cash prize, but he was also saddled with the task of developing and implementing the numbering system on all the country's roads. It was more of a hassle than he'd bargained for going around and nailing numbered signs to utility polls, but he eventually got the job done, and in nineteen seventeen, Brink's new system was used for the first time on a map of Peoria, Illinois. Soon after, other map companies took notice of the project and began tacking up their own identifying symbols along the country's highways. As a result, in less than a decade, it became common to find as many as twenty different signs on a single utility poll. Brink's clever solution had snowballed into all whole new source of confusion for America's drivers. Eventually, this signage free for all led the newly formed National Highway System to get involved once again. John Brink was enlisted to help create a standard numbering system, this time an official one to be rolled out nationwide. The result of his work was eventually adopted by state and federal highway authorities in the mid nineteen twenties, and it's largely the same system that we used today. Has that change took place in America's roads began to make more sense. The oil industry realized what ran McNally had known for decades offering useful road maps encouraged people to drive more and, by extension, to buy more gas. With that in mind, the Golf Oil Company partnered with Rand McNally in nineteen twenty to create a series of road maps to be handed out for free at its service stations. Other oil companies quickly caught be the idea and commission their own promotional maps. Within a few years, ran McNally had earned enough money from such deals to fully underwrite the cost of a brand new venture, the company's first road atlas, the Rand McNally Auto Chum. Of course, if you hit the open road today, you'll probably use a navigation app to make sure you get to where you're going, maybe even one made by Rand McNally. But if you're ever sick of all that accuracy and convenience and you want to put your navigation skills to the test, maybe dust off a road atlas and see where it takes you. Even if you find yourself off the grid with no signal, you'll still have everything you need the open road and your trusty auto chump. I'm Gabe Blusier, and hopefully you now know a little more about history today than he did. Yesterday. If you have a second and you're so inclined, you can follow the show on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at t d i HC Show. You can also rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts, or you can send your questions and comments directly to me at this Day at I heart media dot com. Thanks to Chandler Mays for producing the show, and thank you for listening. I'll see you back here again soon for another day in history class.