Road map

Uh, globalization and automation and pollution came in, and then the gangs came in, and now-

You can visit Marktown on, on, on sort of Street Map.

It's unbelievable.

Um, you know, and it's a strange, weird place.

We used film for all mapping until the 90s when we started to do digital.

And the first Road Atlas came out digitally in 1993.

We used

different computer platforms, and the computers really did help with efficiency.

And, you know, it's been something I've enjoyed for 40 years.

Yeah, I think it's great that you're both still in it and part of the legacy of Rand McNally.

So let's talk about the iconic Road Atlas.

I'm sure we have a lot of people listening today who road trip in our audience.

All right, companies it is.

Founded in Chicago by printers named William and Andrew, what company published the first edition of their now ubiquitous Road Atlas in 1924?

Damn it.

I remember this coming up a few times recently when talking about atlases, and I should have paid attention.

Thank you, Bainey.

For this question, founded in Chicago by printers named William and Andrew.

What company published the first edition of their now ubiquitous Road Atlas in 1924?

Yeah, the Chicago part should help, but it doesn't.

Around the turn of the century, when the internet went from a toy in a laboratory or a tool in a laboratory to the public's internet, was the first of the cascading disruptions.

And in the book, I have two full pages of a list of just all the industries that have disappeared because of the internet, starting with Yellow Pages, Road Atlases, and a hundred other things.

The second disruption was COVID in 2020, when literally everyone, everywhere, all at once, sounds like a movie title, was disrupted.

Within three to four days, the whole world was disrupted.