In the 19th century a name we are more than likely familiar with today, Rand McNally created an atlas in 1881. William Rand was not a cartographer, but a print shop owner who hired another man named Andrew McNally to work for him in his shop. Together they incorporated Rand McNally and went on to print a number of newspapers and other publications.
In 1876 they produced the first atlas, which was called a “business atlas” which was made to assist business owners in planning for their businesses. In 1894 their first atlas for educational purposes was created called “The Rand McNally Primary School Geography”.
This began a long relationship that Rand McNally had with the education system and producing atlases for schools. Rand McNally can also be credited with starting to use a numbering system for highways which was later adopted by governments when building highways and is still in use today.
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