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Description

A Large National Road Map By George Cram

Fine large road map of the United States, published for the Columbus Dispatch Information and Service Bureau, with the cover title Official Paved Road Map of the United States and Canada.

Includes 32 insets of city street maps surround the map. Shows 4 classes of roads, cities and towns according to population, national parks and monuments, and other points of interest.

Includes several maps on the verso of Canada and a schematic highway distance map of the US.

Rarity

The map would seem to be quite rare.  OCLC locates only a copy in the Milwaukee County Library.

George F. Cram Biography

George F. Cram (1842-1928), or George Franklin Cram, was an American mapmaker and businessman. During the Civil War, Cram served under General William Tecumseh Sherman and participated in his March to the Sea. His letters of that time are now important sources for historians of the Civil War. In 1867, Cram and his uncle, Rufus Blanchard, began the company known by their names in Evanston, Illinois.

Two years later, Cram became sole proprietor and the company was henceforth known as George F. Cram Co. Specializing in atlases, Cram was one of the first American companies to publish a world atlas. One of their most famous products was the Unrivaled Atlas of the World, in print from the 1880s to the 1950s.

Cram died in 1928, seven years after he had merged the business with that of a customer, E.A. Peterson. The new company still bore Cram’s name. Four years later, the Cram Company began to make globes, a branch of the business that would continue until 2012, when the company ceased to operate. For the final several decades of the company’s existence it was controlled by the Douthit family, who sold it just before the company was shuttered.