Updated 04-May-2020.
Mondo shtuff from around the internet, all about RAND MCNALLY!
My botty best at summarizing from Wikipedia: the company is headquartered in Chicago, with a distribution center in Richmond, Kentucky . the shop did big business with the forerunner of the Chicago Tribune . in 1868, the two men established Rand McNally & Co in 1870, the company expanded into printing business directories and an illustrated newspaper . according to company lore, during the Great Chicago Fire in 1871, two of the company’s printing machines were buried in a sandy the Trade Book department was established in 1877, publishing such titles as The Locust Plague in the United States . Rand McNally began publishing educational maps in 1880 with its first line of maps, globes, and geography in 1910, the company acquired the line of Photo-Auto Guides from G.S. Chapin . the company continued to expand its book publishing business . best-selling children’s books include The Real Mother Goose in 1916 and map of peoria, il was first published in 1917 by cartographer, John Brink . in 1920, Rand McNally began publishing road maps for the Gulf oil company . the oil industry quickly developed an interest in road maps the first full-color edition was published in 1960 and in 1993, it became fully digitized . it became a standard text for high school and college geography curricula . later retitled Goode’s World the first Rand McNally Travel Store was opened in new york city in 1937 . in the 1990s it became a chain with 29 locations, but by 2005 all were closed . the company opened its Versailles, Kentucky, book publishing plant the plant was over 1,000,000 square feet (93,000 m2) and employed 1,255 people . during the 1980s and 1990s, Rand McNally employed over 4,000 people in four business groups. Rand McNally moved its headquarters back to Chicago in late September 2018 . the company had been majority-owned by the McNally family since 1899 . when Rand retired in 1899, he sold his shares in the company to McN the McNally family completed its divestiture by selling its majority ownership to AEA Investors . much of the purchase price was leveraged, meaning the company took on significant debt hedging on future earnings . AEA intended to capitalize on Rand McNally’s brand recognition by bringing digital mapping to the masses . but the company fell behind the technology curve of upstarts such as MapQuest and fell further into debt . in 1952, it opened a new 283,008 sq ft (26,292 m2) building in suburban Skokie . it brought corporate offices, printing, and distribution operations under one roof . over the Andrew McNally assumed the role of president until his death in 1904 . when Frederick McNally died in 1907, his sister’s husband became president . heirs successively served as president until 1993 . 1980 – Transportation Data Management (TDM) makers of transportation mileage and routing software . 1992 – Nicholstone Holdings – Subsidiary companies were folded into Rand’s Book Services Group . 1996 – Gousha – One of Rand McNally’s longtime rivals, its 82 employees unexpectedly found their Comfort, Texas, building locked with a note taped to the door stating that the company had Rand McNally continues to brand its street guide products as “The Thomas Guide” in western U.S. markets.