General Drafting

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General Drafting Corporation was one of the "Big Three" road map publishers during the oil-company era (roughly 1930-1970), along with H.M. Gousha and Rand McNally. Unlike the other two, General Drafting did not sell its maps to a variety of smaller customers. Instead it was the exclusive suppplier of maps to Standard Oil of New Jersey, later Esso and Exxon. When the oil company free-map era ended, they tried to expand into retail map production, and continued to make maps for Exxon to sell, but their fortunes declined, and in 1992 they were purchased by Langenscheidt Publishing Group, and were absorbed into the American Map Company. Their state maps became the "Travelvision" line for that company. The company was founded by Otto G. Lindberg.