20th Century Maps and Travel

Back in the late 1950s and into the early 1960s, I’d attended DeVeaux School in Niagara Falls New York.  In recent weeks, Gary, one of my college prep school classmates, tweaked my memory and thought process with photos of some of his antique maps and other collectibles.

I started considering some of the paper ephemera type collectibles that I had been given or purchased over the years…and I decided to take a good look at what I had stored away.

In this first post about my ‘discoveries’, I focused on maps and travel related materials ranging from the 1930s up to the early 1960s.  How times have changed!

Based on the population provided for St. Louis in its towns and cities listings, this road map of Missouri was published sometime in the late 1930s.  There sure were a lot of ‘improved’, graded and dirt roads on the map!  Travel had to be a real adventure. 

FYI, in 1930 the census for St. Louis was 821,960.  Today it’s estimated to have declined to 302,838!  It isn’t even in the top 50 largest cities…

Apparently Conoco was a force in the travel industry back in the mid-1900s.  Founded in Ogden Utah in 1875, it changed ownership and merged with other oil companies several times.  But in 1929, it was acquired by Marland Oil Company…later the Continental Oil Company.  In 1930, it was given its red triangle trademark which remained in use until 1970.

In the late 1930’s Conoco debuted a couple of clever marketing efforts.  One was “Gentlemen Prefer Bronze”, which while being a bit sexist, was an attention getter back in the day.  FYI, “Bronze” was the company’s latest gasoline brand.

The other marketing effort involved the introduction of the Conoco Travel Bureau...as pictured above.  It provided drivers free travel information and the maps were marked with the locations of Conoco Service Stations.  They also produced “Touraides”, basically a personal travel plan or ‘Triptik’ for vacationers.  Of course AAA had introduced travel planning and the ‘Triptik’ much earlier.  Conoco advertised that every one of their service stations was a branch of their Travel Bureau.  They even offered customers a ‘Conoco Passport’ that supposedly provided for special services at their service stations.

The second item on my maps and travel list is a map of the “Puget Sound Country” featuring portions of Western Washington State and Oregon in the USA and British Columbia in Canada.  This map, dated 1936, was a marketing piece published by the Black Ball Line, perhaps better known as the Puget Sound Navigation Company based in Seattle Washington.

The west coast version of the company was founded in 1898.  In addition to Puget Sound, the company operated steamboats and ferries in the Georgia Strait in British Columbia.  The PSNC actually had a virtual monopoly on cross-sound traffic in the 1930s, even competing with the Canadian Pacific Railway’s steamships on several routes.

The picture above depicts the PSNC’s Puget Sound Fleet at the time the map was printed.  They had 22 ferry boats of greatly varying sizes in operation.  In those days, with few bridges between the mainland and the Olympic Peninsula or the islands in Puget Sound, a lot of boats were needed for a lot of routes.  After looking at the old map and reading about routes, there were at least 17 routes.

Looking back at the previous full page photo of the ferry boats in operation in Washington State in the mid-1930s, I couldn’t help but notice the first boat at the upper left hand corner.  So, I went to Wikipedia and borrowed a bigger photo as shown above.

The MV Kalakala was built on the hull of the former MV Peralta that had been destroyed via an arson fire in San Francisco.  The decision was made to make this ‘new’ ferry boat unlike any others.  That eye-catching streamlined superstructure was complemented by art deco styling and upscale amenities.  The Kalakala was put into service in 1935 and she was an immediate celebrity.

Note: The Admiral Riverboat that was based in St. Louis Missouri was also built on the hull of a previous vessel... Completed in 1940, it was built with a similar 'streamlined' look.

When she was first launched the MV Kalakala was the 2^nd most photographed man made thing in the world, after only the Eiffel Tower. (Note: The Golden Gate Bridge was completed a year later) Even as late as 1962 when Seattle held its World’s Fair, visitors ranked the Kalakala second among all area attractions, with the Space Needle being first.  This ferry was in service until 1967…then sadly served as a cannery for both fish and shrimp in Alaska…before finally being scrapped in 2015.

While the map itself is too large for me to copy, I did copy this page showing major tourist attractions in the areas covered by the map.  Laurie and I have spent many happy and scenic vacations in Washington, Oregon and British Columbia and we’ve taken the only remaining ‘descendent’ Black Ball ferry route that remains, the MV Coho from Port Angeles Washington to Victoria British Columbia.  Website: https://www.cohoferry.com/.

The old Puget Sound Navigation Company was purchased by the State of Washington in 1951.  The Washington Ferries Division of the Washington Department of Transportation now operates most of the ferry routes that PSNC used to operate.  Washington Ferries operates 23 ferries and carries over 23,000,000 passengers each year.  Measured by vehicles carried, it is the second large such operation in the world.  Only Turkey’s Istanbul Fast Ferries, Inc. with 87 ferries is larger.

To learn more about the long and convoluted history of the Blackball Line/Puget Sound Navigation Company, which actually started on the East Coast of the USA in the trans-Atlantic trade, you can just go to https://www.cohoferry.com/img/pages/Black%20Ball%20Line%20History.pdf.

This map of Chicago is another old one that I have from the 1930s.  Again the map itself is too large for me to copy.  It does include some interesting facts.  The population of the city as per the 1930 census was 3,599,997.  By 2010 it was down by about 900,000 residents to 2,695,598.  With no expressways to handle the traffic, I can’t even imagine what a challenge getting across town must have been like!

As you will note, the map was published by the Standard Oil Company of Indiana…which in 1985 became AMOCO…and is now BP/AMOCO.  Standard Oil Company of Indiana was a spin off from John D. Rockefeller’s original Standard Oil Company.  That company was judged to be a monopoly and was broken up in 1911, creating a number of separate entities including Standard Oil of Indiana. (We always used to stop at Standard Filling Stations when I was growing up)

This is one section of the ‘newest’ of my collectible road maps.  It was printed in 1961 after the Illinois Tollway System was partially completed.  I-94 wasn’t completed on the south side of town, the East-West Tollway ended just west of Aurora and part of the Edens Expressway wasn’t finished yet either.  58 years ago, automobile tolls for the central portion of the Tollway were 30 cents at the main toll plazas.  Speed limits were 65 mph for cars…not that anyone ever drove or drives that slowly in Chicago. (1961 was the first year I drove to Chicago...from Jackson Michigan to make a delivery to a business in the loop.  It was an adventure!)

Note: On June 29, 1956, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Federal-Aid Highway Act.  That bill created a 41,000-mile “National System of Interstate and Defense Highways”, the Interstate system that we know so well today.  What a major impact on travel and life in America!

Back to the Pacific Northwest!  This time I’m featuring a travel book or guide published by the Union Pacific Railroad in 1936 or 1937.  “Pacific Northwest and Alaska” focused on the destinations that travelers might be interested in while subtly promoting rail travel especially from Chicago and the Midwest but also from Southern California.

Included in the attractions listed in the travel book is the Ski Resort in Sun Valley Idaho.  It’s the only listing outside of Washington, Oregon, Alaska and British Columbia.  The reason it was included seems obvious if you do a little research.  In the early 1930s, the Chairman of the Union Pacific, Averell Harriman decided to develop a destination winter resort in the western USA in order to increase ridership on UP passenger trains.  Hence, the Sun Valley Lodge opened in 1936 and it was a big hit.  Under new ownership, it’s still in business.

FYI, Averell Harriman was later Governor of New York State, ambassador to the Soviet Union, advisor and confidant to Presidents and a 2-time candidate for the Democratic nomination for President.  When he passed on in the mid-1980s, his estate was still valued at about $140 million.

At least this map…included toward the back of the UP Travel ‘Guide’…was small enough for me to copy.  It shows the Union Pacific Railroad network as well as related rail connections.  Passenger service included Chicago, Kansas City, Omaha, Denver, Salt Lake City and most other major cities west of Salt Lake City.

This picture shows the passenger train featured in the UP book.  The “City of Portland” was operated by the Union Pacific Railroad and the Chicago and Northwestern Railway between Chicago Illinois and Portland Oregon.  Service began in June of 1935 using an M-10001 streamliner.  That train was replaced by the one shown above, which I think is an M-10002 diesel-electric streamliner that had more power and could pull more cars.  It was an ‘articulated trainset’ and the last ‘turret cab’ streamliner.  In appearance, it looks almost like the M-10001…

As for the original, the M-10001, which was completed in 1934, it was the first streamliner with sleeping cars.  Beginning in 1936, it made the trip from Chicago to Portland in 39 hours and 45 minutes.  Before that the fastest train took 59 hours and 20 minutes.  In October 1934, the M-10001 set an as-yet unbroken record of 57 hours from coast to coast/Los Angeles to New York City.

This Rand McNally Pocket Map of Tennessee is the last item I’ve included in this posting.  It was also printed and published in 1931. One side of the map is the road map…and as a sign of those times, the other side shows all the rail lines in the state.  Love the steam locomotive and the classic automobiles...

Of course in 1931 there were many roads that weren’t paved, Oak Ridge Tennessee didn’t exist yet and the ‘highway’ over the Smoky Mountains from Elkmont and Gatlinburg Tennessee to Cherokee North Carolina was still a dirt road!  In addition, there was no Kentucky Lake nor any other TVA dam or reservoir in existence when this map was printed…mainly because the Tennessee Valley Authority wasn’t approved by Congress and signed off on by President Roosevelt until 1933.

The two large maps in the Pocket Map booklet are too big to copy and include in this post but here are the city maps of Nashville, Memphis, Knoxville and Jackson Tennessee.  What a change in these city maps from then to now!  Of course, the increase in the number of cars and trucks in use and the population growth has had a major impact.

 

In 1930 Nashville had 153,866 residents and its estimated population today is 692,587.  Memphis: 253,143 vs. 650,618.  Knoxville: 105,802 vs. 187,500.  Jackson: 22,172 vs. 66,903.  Keep in mind that these numbers are just for the cities themselves and doesn’t include the suburban areas around them… The State of Tennessee had 2,616,556 residents in 1930.  The estimated population as of 2018 is 6,895,418!

Old Coca Cola ads are always interesting.  This one depicts a trail ride down the Bright Angel Trail into the Grand Canyon…and lays claim to 9,000,000 Cokes consumed every day.  Today that number would be hovering around 1,700,000,000 per day!

Regarding the second large map contained in this Pocket Map booklet.  It lists a total of 22 different railroads operating in Tennessee!  Of course, many of them I’ve never heard of.  Examples include the Morgan and Fentress, Little River, Oneida and Western, the Union, and the Yazoo and Mississippi Valley.

Overall, this Pocket Map was very informative. In addition to the maps, it lists the cities and towns with their 1930 census results, provides a lot of information about history, industry, physical features, mineral resources, attractions, electric (intercity) rail lines, steamship lines and even hotels.  I noted that the lowest nightly rate for 3 of the hotels listed for Knoxville was $2.00 per night.  The hotels were the Andrew Johnson Hotel with 350 rooms, the Arnold Hotel with 150 rooms and the Farragut Hotel with 300 rooms.

 

FYI…The Andrew Johnson Hotel is now used for office space by Knox County.  It was built in 1929 and it is listed in the National Register for Historic Places.  For the history of this hotel, you can just go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Johnson_Building.  The old Farragut Hotel is now Knoxville’s Hyatt Place Hotel.

That’s all for now… Just click on any of the photo to enlarge them.

Thanks for stopping by and checking out some of my collectibles!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave