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. RMCA Newsletter with the assertion that it was probably the Berkshire Life Insurance Company of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, who held the honor.