Hello, first post. I don't know if anyone here shares my interests... I'm specifically interested in gas station road maps. I've got over 2500, the vast majority of which are American, and the earliest is from 1923.

I'd like to hear from anyone else interested in this sort of thing. Also, I've been starting to look for info on designers of gas station logos and map covers. Does anyone have any leads they'd like to share on this? All I've found so far is Raymond Loewy, who designed the Shell, BP, and Exxon signs, and apparently hundreds of other things.... he was actually on the cover of Time magazine in 1949.

Anyway.... any and all responses will be appreciated! I started collecting maps in 1970 and have been utterly alone in this hobby ever since.

Hi Jason, welcome to the site. I collect early (pre 30's) gas station roadmaps from all brands and later maps from small companies. Are you a member of RMCA ?

Have you tried a Goooooooogle Patent search on gasoline logo's or designs ?

Hey Jason, that must be one heck of a collection. I'm sure you know this already but just wanted to mention the Road Map Collectors Association, they hold at least one convention a year, maybe more.
Web site is http://www.roadmaps.org/

Check this post http://www.oldgas.com/shoptalk/ubb/Forum4/HTML/001474.html

This is a sort of IOU for a longer reply later. Thanks everyone. I have a bad eye problem, which means I don't read a lot at one time, and tonight I'm about to go offline after a night of too much eye use.

I'm letting the gas station illustration thread load... I masy have to start again when I have time for it. Thanks very much.

What's a Google patent search? What's different from a regular Google web or image search? (Near-literal LOL at "Goooooooooooogle")

I joined RMCA for a year or two, but I had to cut back on expenses owing to my low fixed Disability income. I may join again sometime.

Tonight I also found out about:
PETER HELCK

He was hired to paint several huge, elaborate five-panel (20 inches long) paintings for Sinclair road maps in the 30s, but usually did car illustrations, and his own paintings are great too.

My favorite signs: I tend to divide things at 1960, after that "modern" and before that "old", because styles changed so much. Favorite old ones, Marathon from the 50s, and Cities Service from when they had the green bar underneath and triangle. That one was always compellingly... spooky I guess, to me even as a child. I can't explain why. Favorite later one-- Spur from the 60s/early 70s, also Bonded.

Hi Jason,

check out Ian's site http://www.ianbyrne.free-online.co.uk/

mainly from europe but still great.

GPG

Also a fellow mapster. The annual meet is Oct. 3-4 in Hammond, IN. Room-to-room is at the Amerihost Hotel, and the Expo is at the Jean Shepherd Center on Saturday morning.
It's great fun. You'll see maps you never dreamed existed.
My site doesn't show up very well in the Google results, because I haven't had time to update in awhile. http://home.comcast.net/~jschlesser3/ .
Enjoy!

Hi Gary, and I just went through the first page I came to on your site, Judy....



I LOLed at this-- also at the business about the Queen Elizabeth wave...!

I've wanted to go to that Indiana event for a few years, but certain medical concerns and lack of a car seem to be getting in the way. "Room to Room"?

A couple days ago, I found on my own what must have been the site you referred to, that talks about independent women drivers being shown and catered to on covers of 30s maps, and how they pulled the plug on that in the 40s. Oh well. That's when my mother would have learned to drive, except she didn't until the 70s. ?

Lately I'm thinking I want to start working gasoline signs into drawings, somehow getting across how the images have affected me over the decades, something I don't know myself yet. When I thought about this more, I realized that for instance the Cities Service sign was always a little "jarring" to me. The green clover and triangle might seem like a strange "face"...

That's as far as I've gotten, and some readers have bailed on this thread already, probably, but I might like to have some landscape with stormclouds in a drawing with a broken Cities Service sign towering over the rubble of the ruined station, something surreal.

I'll be back to normal next post, everyone, promise....