 The Corbin Building in New York City, where the company was headquartered during the mid-20th century | |
| Industry | Cartography |
|---|---|
| Predecessor | Geographia, Ltd |
| Founded | 1911 in London, England |
| Founder | Alexander Gross |
| Headquarters | , United States |
Area served | New York metropolitan area |
| Products | Road maps Wall maps |
| Website | geographiamaps |
The Geographia Map Company is an independently owned U.S. publisher of road maps, atlases and wall maps. The company is based in Hackensack, New Jersey.
Geographia was founded in 1911 by Alexander Gross (1879 –March 23, 1958), a native of Austria-Hungary who had established Geographia, Ltd, a commercial map publisher located at No. 55 Fleet Street in London. [1] [2] [3] [4] War maps were in great demand during World War I, so Gross set out to publish as many of these as he could. Among these were maps covering the Gallipoli campaign, Verdun to Belfort, Russia, the Near East, and the Italy—Germany—Austria region. [5] Other wartime efforts included "The Daily Telegraph War Map of the British Front" and "The Daily Telegraph Pocket Atlas of the War." [6] In the war's immediate aftermath, the company produced "The Daily Telegraph Victory Atlas of the World" in forty-eight weekly installments. [7] An index gazetteer which accompanied the victory map contained more than 250,000 place names. [4] Gross provided a full-color 1,200 square inches (0.77 m2) map for the 1917 edition of the South American Year Book. [8]
Arriving in the United States in 1928, [3] Gross initially had the new Geographia produce maps of the New York metropolitan area, [9] and later expanded the company's focus into neighboring urban areas. Beginning in the 1940s, Geographia was headquartered in the Corbin Building, located at 11 John Street in New York City. The company entered a period of rapid growth, introducing world maps and atlases, topical maps detailing aspects of World War II, and a catalog of atlases, street guide books ("Red Books"), travel guides ("Famous Guides"), wall maps, and street atlases covering dozens of cities in the United States and Canada. [2] In 1953, it published the first new map believed to have been made of the Soviet Union in 12 years. [10]
By the late 1980s, the company was owned by the Polak family and sold a million maps per year. Based at 231 Hackensack Plank Road in Weehawken, New Jersey, [11] it was purchased by the Rand McNally Corporation, and then re-purchased by its original owners several years later. [12] Now based in Hackensack, [2] Geographia publishes a number of folded maps, guidebooks, atlases, and wall maps focusing on the greater New York metropolitan area. [12]
The company's maps are based on information gleaned from various government sources, including official surveys and aerial photographs, but it also relied on tips from average citizens. [11] Gross was known to wander throughout New York City in search of obscure streets to add into his maps. [9]
In addition to its international portfolio, which included maps of London and Paris, by the 1950s Geographia maps had been introduced for Akron, Baltimore, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, New Orleans, San Francisco and Washington (DC). [9] Dozens of other locations were covered, [2] including Buffalo, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Rochester, [11] Atlanta, Atlantic City, Binghamton, Birmingham (AL), Charleston (SC), Cleveland, Gary, Grand Rapids, Honolulu, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Louisville, Miami, Montreal, Milwaukee, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Norfolk (VA), Oakland (CA), Oklahoma City, Omaha, Philadelphia, Portland (OR), Providence, Richmond (VA), St. Louis, San Diego, Seattle, Syracuse, Toledo, Toronto and Wilmington (DE). These folded map titles were housed within a cardstock cover featuring photography of each city's skyline on the front cover, and an alphabetical listing of Geographia's catalog on the rear cover. The maps themselves were large-scale, full color on the detail side, black-and-white on the reverse. [11] Each featured Geographia's characteristic style of cartography, which resembled that of both the forerunner Geographia, Ltd., and the subsequent Geographer's A-Z (also based in the UK). These maps were often distributed by local newsagents, a strategy also employed by a number of Geographia's competitors.
By the end of the 1970s, the vast majority of this catalog had gone out of print, and has since become rather collectible. A handful of titles in the northeastern United States remained in print into the 1990s.
Hudson County is the smallest and most densely populated county in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It lies west of the lower Hudson River, which was named for Henry Hudson, the sea captain who explored the area in 1609. Part of New Jersey's Gateway Region in the New York metropolitan area, the county seat is Jersey City, which is the county's largest city in terms of both population and area. The county is part of the North Jersey region of the state.
Weehawken is a township in the northern part of Hudson County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is located on the Hudson Waterfront and Hudson Palisades overlooking the Hudson River. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's population was 17,197, an increase of 4,643 (+37.0%) from the 2010 census count of 12,554, which in turn reflected a decline of 947 (−7.0%) from the 13,501 counted in the 2000 census.
Hackensack is the most populous municipality and the county seat of Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The area was officially named New Barbadoes Township until 1921, but has informally been known as Hackensack since at least the 18th century. As of the 2020 United States census, the city's population was 46,030, its highest decennial count ever and an increase of 3,020 (+7.0%) from the 2010 census count of 43,010, which in turn reflected an increase of 333 (+0.8%) from the 42,677 counted in the 2000 census.
The Geographers' A–Z Street Atlas, commonly shortened to A–Z, is a title given to any one of a range of atlases of streets in the United Kingdom produced by Geographers' A–Z Map Company Limited. Its first atlas, of London, was originally compiled in the 1930s by Phyllis Pearsall. The company she founded now publishes street maps of many cities and towns in the UK.
In cartography, a trap street is a fictitious entry in the form of a misrepresented street on a map, often outside the area the map nominally covers, for the purpose of "trapping" potential plagiarists of the map who, if caught, would be unable to explain the inclusion of the "trap street" on their map as innocent. On maps that are not of streets, other "trap" features may be inserted or altered for the same purpose.
For the purposes of this article, the Jersey City area extends North to Edgewater, South to Bayonne and includes Kearny Junction and Harrison but not Newark. Many routes east of Newark are listed here.
Phyllis Isobella Pearsall MBE was a British painter and writer who founded the Geographers' A-Z Map Company, for which she is regarded as one of the most successful business people of the twentieth century. She has erroneously been credited with creating London's first popular indexed street map.
The Central Railroad of New Jersey Terminal, also known as Communipaw Terminal and Jersey City Terminal, was the Central Railroad of New Jersey's waterfront passenger terminal in Jersey City, New Jersey. The terminal was built in 1889, replacing an earlier one that had been in use since 1864. It operated until April 30, 1967.
Paterson Plank Road is a road that runs through Passaic, Bergen and Hudson Counties in northeastern New Jersey. The route, originally laid in the colonial era, connects the city of Paterson and the Hudson River waterfront. It has largely been superseded by Route 3, but in the many towns it passes it has remained an important local thoroughfare, and in some cases been renamed.
The Hackensack Plank Road, also known as Bergen Turnpike, was a major artery which connected the cities of Hoboken and Hackensack, New Jersey. Like its cousin routes, the Newark Plank Road and Paterson Plank Road, it travelled over Bergen Hill and across the Hackensack Meadows from the Hudson River waterfront to the city for which it was named. It was originally built as a colonial turnpike road as Hackensack and Hoboken Turnpike. The route mostly still exists today, though some segments are now called the Bergen Turnpike. It was during the 19th century that plank roads were developed, often by private companies which charged a toll. As the name suggests, wooden boards were laid on a roadbed in order to prevent horse-drawn carriages and wagons from sinking into softer ground on the portions of the road that passed through wetlands. The company that built the road received its charter on November 30, 1802. The road followed the route road from Hackensack to Communipaw that was described in 1679 as a "fine broad wagon-road."
Bergen Hill refers to the lower Hudson Palisades in New Jersey, where they emerge on Bergen Neck, which in turn is the peninsula between the Hackensack and Hudson Rivers, and their bays. In Hudson County, it reaches a height of 260 feet.
George Philip (1800–1882) was a Scottish cartographer, map publisher and founder of the publishing house George Philip & Son Ltd.
The Hackensack Water Company Complex is a set of historic buildings in Weehawken, New Jersey, registered in the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. The Hackensack Water Company, a predecessor of Suez North America, developed water supply and storage in northeastern New Jersey from the 1870s to the 1970s, initially to provide service to the city of Hackensack and the towns of North Hudson. Originally its headquarters and major facilities were located at Hackensack, in Bergen County. Under Robert W. de Forest, who ran the Hackensack Water Company for 46 years beginning in 1881, the company constructed new facilities and moved its headquarters to Weehawken in Hudson County, setting up offices in a brick water tower, part of the present complex.
The Hudson Waterfront is an urban area of northeastern New Jersey along the lower reaches of the Hudson River, the Upper New York Bay and the Kill van Kull. Though the term can specifically mean the shoreline, it is often used to mean the contiguous urban area between the Bayonne Bridge and the George Washington Bridge that is approximately 19 miles (31 km) long. Historically, the region has been known as Bergen Neck, the lower peninsula, and Bergen Hill, lower Hudson Palisades. It has sometimes been called the Gold Coast.
Bulls Ferry is an area along the Hudson River, just north of Weehawken Port Imperial in the towns of West New York, Guttenberg and North Bergen in New Jersey. It takes its name from a pre-Revolutionary settlement belonging to the Bull family, who operated a row-and-sail ferry to the burgeoning city of New York across the river.
Pershing Road is a road located entirely in Weehawken, New Jersey that travels for 0.42 miles (0.68 km) on the Hudson Palisades between Boulevard East and Weehawken Port Imperial, and carries the designation Hudson County Route 682. At County Route 505, the road meets 48th Street, one of the very few two-way streets in the urban grid of North Hudson, which travels west to Bergenline Avenue and Kennedy Boulevard. It is named for World War I hero John J. Pershing. Earlier names have included Clifton Road, named for the estate on whose land it was located, and Hillside Road, which would speak to its location.
Shippen Street is an east-west street in Weehawken, New Jersey. The eastern terminal, a cobblestone double hairpin turn is listed on the New Jersey Register of Historic Places. Shippen Street was developed at the start of the 20th century as part of the Weehawken Heights, one of the town's residential neighborhoods.
The North Hudson Railway Company built and operated a streetcar system in Hudson County and southeast Bergen County, New Jersey before and after the start of the 20th century. It was founded by Hillric J. Bonn who became the first President in 1865 and served for 26 years until his death, and eventually taken over by the Public Service Railway. In its endeavors to overcome the formidable obstacle of ascending the lower Hudson Palisades, or Bergen Hill, it devised numerous innovative engineering solutions including funicular wagon lifts, an inclined elevated railway, an elevator and viaducts.
Geographers' A–Z Map Company Ltd. is the largest independent map publisher in the United Kingdom, providing cartographic services, digital data products and paper mapping publications.
Technical geography is the branch of geography that involves using, studying, and creating tools to obtain, analyze, interpret, understand, and communicate spatial information.
