Rocky Mountain Map Society - virtual speaker
THURSDAY, 14 March 2024, at 4:00PM Pacific
Title: Why We Collect Road Maps
Speaker: Gary Spaid, Past President, Road Map Collectors Association
Register in advance for this ZOOM virtual event by clicking HERE.
Location: via Zoom 4:00PM Pacific, 5:00PM Mountain, 6:00PM Central, 7:00PM Eastern
(Arranged with assistance of Rocky Mountain Map Society; sponsored in partnership with California, Chicago, New York, Philip Lee Phillips, Rocky Mountain, and Texas Map Societies)
Summary: In this well illustrated presentation, Spaid will enumerate reasons why it is important to collect road maps. He will demonstrate that they document the history of automobile and service station design; the development of trails, roads, and highways; changing cartographic techniques; cultural history; and oil company histories. Others may collect for the art and graphics, or to document a favorite state or brand. He will show examples of road maps produced by various publishers and in different formats. He will conclude by showing a range of oil company and official maps of Texas, and a few examples of road map rarities.
Bio: Spaid is a long-time road map collector, having started collecting about 1996. He is a past Treasurer (2009-2013) and President (2013 – 2021) of the Road Map Collectors Association, Inc., an international organization devoted to the hobby. He is a board Director currently. Through his efforts the organization became an IRS 501c3 non-profit entity and grew from about 150 members to now about 300. Gary’s personal road map collection of about 10,000 road maps is focused generally on oil company road maps. He is also a coin and stamp collector.
A graduate of Virginia Tech, Gary was a chemical engineer by trade, working mostly in the Houston, Texas area. His experience ranged from being a technical service engineer through being a chemical plant facility manager. He eventually migrated to running an environmental, health and safety consulting company for about 15 years. He retired to the mountains of Arkansas in 2014.
Questions? Please contact Ronald E. Grim, Ph.D.
