Denoyer-Geppert Company

The Denoyer-Geppert Company (1916 - 1984) was a Chicago-based publishing firm that dealt in maps, atlases, and spherical cartography (globes). For 68 years, the company played a critical role in the education of the world’s students. Founded in 1916 by Otto E. Geppert (the salesman) and L. Philip Denoyer (the cartographer/editor). Denier was born in Milwaukee in 1875 and was a high school principal by the age of 32. He was also completing graduate work at the University of Chicago at the same time. He was appointed the first Professor of Geology and Geography at the State Teacher’s College - La Crosse (University of Wisconsin) in 1909. Legend has it that Denoyer met Geppert while teaching one of his classes, when the latter came up from Chicago to sit in on one. Geppert was working as a salesman for A.J. Nystrom and Company, which today self-identifies as ‘the United States’ older publisher of wall maps and globes for classroom use.’ Geppert was there to sell Denoyer on joining the team at Nostrum, believing that his expertise could benefit the company. Three years later they founded the Denoyer-Geppert Company, and within six years had moved from a 500 square foot space into the 50,000 square foot Swedish-American Telephone Building. By 1922, their catalogue consisted of ‘1,200 maps, charts, globes, and associate aids in teaching geography and history and 800 brilliantly illuminated biological charts and anatomical models.’ In 1967, Denoyer-Geppert was contracted by NASA to build the first official and accurate ‘lunar globe’, based on information gathered by Apollo 10 astronauts. The company made 200 of these globes, the first of which was presented by the astronauts of Apollo 10 to President Nixon. Rand McNally, one of their major competitors, bought out their inventory of maps and globes in 1984. Denoyer-Geppert left the Swedish-American Telephone Building and reinvented the company as the Denoyer-Geppert Science Company, which specializes in anatomical models for classrooms. The Swedish-American Telephone Company has been named a historic landmark and was remodeled into loft apartments.