Early US automobile route maps
By: Nat Slaughter
The series of pathfinder sketches below are turn-by-turn directions published in the 1911 Motor Age magazine. At a time when automotive travel was becoming popular, the country’s roads and knowledge of road networks was not set up to facilitate this growing interest. Signage was sporadic, road networks were local and not connected, cross country and even cross state commuting was often done by rail.
At first route data was taken in longhand, which took too long and only provided route information in one direction. It was also difficult to translate these written directions into strip maps by the team’s cartographers. A scheme was devised for taking all route data in graphic form showing in their proper relation to the route all intersecting roads, landmarks, prominent buildings, railroad crossings, telephone poles, etc. This sketch method not only saved time and gave data from which the route could be written in both directions, but also allowed the use of symbols to represent all sorts of landmarks and road conditions.
The linear approach of these early maps kept the focus on the route, leaving out unnecessary information that would visually distract the navigator.
Entrepreneurial automobilists started to create route guides; the most prolific being the Official Automobile Blue Book, which was published in twelve volumes between 1901–1929 and provided the tourist directional information on how to navigate the primitive road networks of the early 20th century. The Blue Book’s use of strip maps, or a map form that exhibits increasing degrees of abstraction in relation to a central linear feature, is directly applicable today as we design navigation-based applications.
In order for the Blue Book to publish routes, they had to fill in the gaps of knowledge of the country’s road network from local sources and by venturing out into the field. The pathfinders were teams of two people — a driver and a note taker — who would head out into the country for months at a time, survey, and gather information.
“Not having good maps, it became necessary to send cars over the routes desired to procure the information needed.” — John Dods, “Advancement in Art of Pathfinding,” Motor Age, 1911
Pathfinders Sketches: Cartographers at Official Automobile Blue Book company was originally published in Points of interest on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.