H. M. Goshua maps being detailed, why did Rand McNally shut them down?

[ACSCmapcollector]

H. M. Goshua maps being detailed, why did Rand McNally shut them down?

I have found out that H. M. Goshua road and street maps were the most detailed when it comes to proposed freeways with two double red dash lines, I wonder why Rand McNally shut them down?  Competition or what, you can comment on this post, please.  I have many in my own antique and street map collection.

Scott C. Presnal
Morro Bay, CA

[Alex]

From what I was told by a friend in the know, when Rand bought out Gousha, they collected all of the plates for their maps and had them crushed. Guess they wanted to end the brand once and for all.

[ACSCmapcollector]

Unless our government were to stop such mergers to happen with Thomas Brothers Maps with Rand McNally, the case be with H.M. Goshua, they just wanted them closed, which is very sad indeed.  The only other company I would say would be General Drafting by now.

Scott C. Presnal
Morro Bay, CA

[nexus73]

I liked Gousha's road graphics much better than R-M's.  Wish the buyout had gone the other way!

Rick

[ACSCmapcollector]

I agree, let H. M. Goshua bought Rand McNally out.  No cartography mergers, nothing!  H.M. Goshua was the most details of all the companies that I have seen...I wished they were not shut down.

Scott C. Presnal
Morro Bay, CA

[Alex]

Well the buyouts picked up steam within the past ten years with Kappa Map Group buying out a number of regional outfits including American Map, ADC, Mapsco, etc. and effectively killing them off as stand alones. Thomas Guides were taken over by Rand during this time period too, which is why their uniqueness dissolved.

[ACSCmapcollector]

It happens to be sad, I think H.M. Goshua was owned by Times Mirror Company, I get some of my maps from www.20centurymaps.com for my collection of old antique road and street maps.

Scott C. Presnal
Morro Bay, CA

[Alex]

It happens to be sad, I think H.M. Goshua was owned by Times Mirror Company, I get some of my maps from www.20centurymaps.com for my collection of old antique road and street maps.

Scott C. Presnal
Morro Bay, CA

Gousha was always my favorite of the big cartographry companies growing up. I also was a fan of ADC, with their Mid-Atlantic titles. I have over 2,000 folding maps in my collection and continue to add to it via flea markets, antique stores, fellow road enthusiasts. Gousha was a bit better than Rand because they continued to show proposed alignments after 1980, when Rand switched bases and only showed alignments that were u/c (even if they were never built, such as the Nashua, NH bypass).

[sparker]

Which would have been a complete reversal from their cartographic efforts in the early 1960's.  A side-to-side comparison of the Gousha to the McNally atlases would show that Gousha laid out what was on the ground at the time; Interstate segments were shown as they were built.  McNally, on the other hand, indicated future insterstates with triple-dashed lines -- and occasionally just pasted an Interstate symbol right on the road to be superseded (they particularly did this with the original I-64 alignment from St. Louis to Louisville via US 50 & 150).  Back then (this is when I was 11-16 years old, pre-driver status) I used to use the Gousha atlas if I had to actually delineate roads, while the principal purpose of the McNally was to follow the progress of the nascent Interstate network; the difference in detail was quite apparent.

[ACSCmapcollector]

Also the American Automobile Association used city maps of Dallas, from H.M. Goshua too, I found that out looking at a wide file at the Visalia Public Library in downtown Visalia, many years ago in the early 1980s by visiting the library, so I prefer them over Rand McNally for the details on proposed Interstate routes like in Sacramento, CA showing the Westside Freeway, Interstate under construction from Interstate 80 to the future site of the Sacramento International Airport, and south of downtown a two red dash line showing a proposed route Interstate 5 from Interstate 80, in 1967 from Chevron.
I have approximately 200 street and old maps which are antique along with 3 shoeboxes full of ACSC (Automobile Club of Southern California) maps too.

Scott C. Presnal
Morro Bay, CA

[sparker]

When they did indicate future/proposed routes, Gousha tended to be consistently proportional as to how those routes were indicated.  Regional and single-state maps generally used single red dashed lines, while the larger-scale local maps and inserts within the state maps used double dashes.  Even then, their researchers seemed to forward only advanced-stage plans for future corridors to the cartographers; back about 1957, the Oklahoma maps (state + central US regional) showed an expansion of the turnpike network, including a route south of OKC generally along (but slightly west of) the present I-35 alignment -- but with a branch extending northeast from Davis to near Ada (part of which is today's Chickasha Turnpike), and then north along current US 377 to I-44/Turner Tpk.  Those dashed lines disappeared by 1959, after the Interstate routings were defined.  A later Gousha "proposed route" line showed up in North Carolina in the late '70's and early '80's; it essentially followed what is now the easternmost (albeit generally N-S) segment of I-40, but the line stopped at I-95 near the north terminus of US 701 rather than extending to Raleigh.  Before it eventually (for the most part) became I-40, I would consider it a safe guess that it was an in-state NCDOT-planned route prior to being considered for Interstate status. 

I'm certain there were other proposed routes, particularly in the nascent Interstate years, that were indicated from time to time on various Gousha maps; the ones cited are the ones that stick out in my memory.