1962 Soltesz Pictorial Map of American Folklore and Legends

Frank J. Soltesz (June 14, 1912 - March 21, 1986) was an American artist and commercial illustrator. Born in Pennsylvania, Soltesz was active from the 1930s until the 1960s. He is most well-known for a series of advertisements published between 1947 and 1951 for the Armstrong Cork Company featuring illustrated cross-sections of buildings and factories. These advertisements, published in the Saturday Evening Post, are wonderfully detailed and garnered instant popularity. The images were so compelling that the Saturday Evening Post offered 21 by 22 inch prints suitable for framing upon request. Soltesz also illustrated for other companies, among them TWA, General Motors, Goodyear, and General Electric. His work appeared in various periodicals of the era, such as Colliers, Sports Illustrated, Life, Fortune, Time, Esquire, Business Week, and U.S. News and World Report. Soltesz married Loretta Simms on June 13, 1941, with whom he had two daughters and a son. More by this mapmaker...

General Drafting Corporation (1909 - 1992) was one of the 'Big Three' publishers of road maps between 1930 and 1970, along with H. M. Gousha and Rand McNally. Founded in 1909, Otto G. Lindberg, an immigrant from Finland and the company's founder, began his business with a borrowed drafting board and a $500 loan from his father. At the time only twenty-three years old, Lindberg advertised his business as 'any and all general drafting' and was based out of 170 Broadway in New York City. Only two years later, in 1911, the firm secured its first contract from the American Automobile Association to make 'road maps'. Lindberg incorporated his business in 1914 and became its first Chairman of the Board, a position he held until his death in 1968. Lindberg persuaded Standard Oil of New Jersey to let him draw the 'best' road map of the state that they had ever seen, and Standard Oil would distribute it for free. Sufficiently impressed with the finished product, Standard contracted General Drafting to make all their road maps - a relationship that lasted another six decades. This relationship allowed General Drafting to work exclusively for Standard Oil, but when oil companies stopped providing free maps, General Drafting was in a bind. The company tried to expand into the retail map market, and it of course continued creating maps for Exxon (the new name for Standard Oil) to sell, but its returns continued to decline. The firm was purchased in 1992 by Langenscheidt and subsequently absorbed into the American Map Company. General Drafting's state maps became this company's 'Travelvision' lineup. Learn More...