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Club Information Map Information Buy/Sell/Trade Maps Miscellaneous
| RMCA - Summer 1998 Newsletter PreviewThe Auto Road Map and American Paper Landscape For over fifty years, the free oil company map was ubiquitous in America. Glove compartments and desk drawers were stuffed with them. They fueled the landscape perceptions and travel visions of generations of Americans and, in many cases, provided the only form of geographic education available. They mirror a dynamic era in our society as the auto age took form and changed the look of the land and the character of the people. Road maps express the freedom of the open road and all the commercial opportunity that that entails. They are distinctly American as their evolution and design differ markedly from those of the rest of the world, and serve as a unique form of Americana. The quest for antecedents could lead us to Roman road maps, but the railroad maps and inter-urban maps of the late 19th century, were a more immediate, although negative, influence. While the former emphasized distant connections, the later served shorter commutes. Together, they tended to de-emphasize the need for good highways. Rather, it was the bicycle fad of the 1890's that called attention to the need for good roads as you can't ride a bike in the mud! Under the auspices of the League of American Wheelmen, road maps were produced that differentiated the few "good" roads from the many classed as "ordinary." ... The Berkshire Life Insurance Company Road Map of 1883 - The First Free
Road Map? A three-part article titled, "Who Gave Away the First Free Road Maps? concluded in the Winter 1997-98 RMCA Newsletter with the assertion that it was probably the Berkshire Life Insurance Company of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, who held the honor. Part III was illustrated with a portion of a "Road Map of Berkshire Hills" produced by that company in 1896, mainly for the use of bicyclists, apparently, but there was also a description of another larger map issued but that company in 1883, which, in the absence of any known free road maps of earlier date, was taken to be the first free road map ever issued. But alas, no examples of that map were known to survive at the time the article was written. Now the situation has changed. Pictured here is that Berkshire Life Insurance Company map of 1883, and what a beauty it is! In one lucky day, Stan DeOrsey (#76) of Poughkeepsie, NY, discovered two examples of this map in the hands of two different dealers. Having just read about the map in the newsletter, he recognized those he found as very significant, so he bought one and told me where the other was, and I bought it. ... Map Sheet Richfield Covers - 1925-1986
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