Caption pending Magnolia Petroleum was a producer, refiner, and marketing firm founded in the 1890s in Dallas, Texas. Standard Oil Company of New York (Socony) purchased a partial interest in Magnolia in 1918, with Socony's principal desire being access to Magnolia's production capacity. Socony acquired the remaining interest in Magnolia in the Twenties and, following the Socony-Vacuum merger, replaced the Magnolia brand name with the Mobilgas name though the Magnolia subsidiary was to remain in existence for two more decades. This map dates from 1930.
Malco was a regional refiner based in Roswell, New Mexico and marketed throughout its home state. This beautiful map showing desert views is one of the earliest map issues with photographs rather than artwork. This map dates from 1945. This Malco map dates from the early Sixties. Malco retains a small presence today.
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Caption pending Miller and Holmes started as a wholesale grocer before the turn of the Twentieth Century and began a small gasoline chain in the Thirties. This map was issued in 1960. M&H still operates several convenience stores in the upper midwest.
This map was issued by the Ohio Oil Company during the Thirties and shows their marathon runner. Caption pending
Marathon's predecessor was the Ohio Oil Co., founded in 1887 in Findlay. The company was part of the Standard Oil trust until the Standard's 1911 breakup. This map is from the early 1940s and shows the "marathon runner" that became the company's logo in the Thirties and ultimately the name and logo of a company still in business today. Caption pending
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Martin Oil Products and Martin Oil Service (see below) were originally a single family-owned operation headquartered in Chicago and Carbondale, Illinois. In 1956, the company spit into two separate operations, with the Carbondale operations becoming Martin Oil Products. This map dates from 1972. Caption pending
Martin Oil Products and Martin Oil Service (see above) were originally a single family-owned operation headquartered in Chicago and Carbondale, Illinois. In 1956, the company spit into two separate operations, with the Chicago (Alsip) operations becoming Martin Oil Service. This map was issued in 1958. Caption pending
Merit was an independent discounter that operated in the northeast. This map uses a Rand McNally generic cover and was issued in 1962. The station list on the map's rear cover listed 36 stations in four New England states. Midland Cooperatives was based in St. Paul, Minnesota. It was merged into the Farmers Union Central Exchange (Cenex) in 1988, five years after this map was issued.
Caption pending In the early Sixties, the Midwest Oil Company of Minneapolis, Minnesota replaced its Ace brand with the Midwest name. This map, a Rand McNally generic design, was issued in 1972.
The Mileage brand was used by Western Oil & Fuel Co., a Minneapolis-based marketing operation that was later bought by Conoco. This map was issued in 1953. This dual-branded map was issued in 1958 after Western Oil and Fuel acquired the Direct Service brand, both companies being based in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
This 1961 map bears Western Oil and Fuel's Mileage and DS brands with a new unified logo.
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The midwest-based Lubrite Refining Company was acquired by Vacuum Oil Company in the late Twenties and shortly thereafter adopted Vacuum's Mobilgas brand with its Pegasus flying horse emblem) and Mobiloil with its gargoyle emblem. This Lubrite map was issued in 1933 after Lubrite and its parent Vacuum Oil Company had been acquired by Standard Oil Company of New York, becoming known as Socony-Vacuum. This 1938 map shows the gradual consolidation of the several once-independent divisions of Socony-Vacuum. During the first years after these acquisitions began around 1930, the only common area between the divisions were the Mobilgas and Mobiloil brand names and the respective logos. Each of the divisions had its own distinct image (which carried to road map design) until the mid-Thirties when Socony-Vacuum began to move toward a common image based on the Socony shield and Mobilgas/Mobiloil brand names.
Caption pending General Petroleum was a west coast producer and marketer acquired by the Standard Oil Company of New York (Socony) during the Twenties and in time, as with the other divisions of Socony-Vacuum, came to use the parent company's Mobilgas and Mobiloil brand names. This Mobilgas map was issued by General in 1939 and exemplifies the tendancy of General's road maps to be among the more colorful of the Socony-Vacuum divisions.
The Magnolia Petroleum Company marketed in Texas and the southwest and was acquired by Socony-Vacuum in the Thirties. This map dates to 1940, after the Mobilgas and Mobiloil trademarks were put into universal use by Socony-Vacuum's various regional subsidiaries. This 1942 Mobilgas map was issued by Socony-Vacuum, the former Standard Oil Company of New York which was parent company of the various firms selling petroleum under the Mobilgas and Mobiloil names.
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This map was issued by Wisconsin-based Wadhams, a subsidiary marketing under the Mobilgas name and owned by Socony-Vacuum. This map was issued in 1940. Acquired by Vacuum Oil in 1930, Michigan-based White Star Refining operated in Michigan, and in parts of Ohio and Indiana. This 1935 map shows the increasing predominence of the Mobilgas name and Pegasus logo but shows a white star in deference to the subsidiary company. The white star remained on gas station signage (and on road maps) until after World War II.
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This map shows the shortened brand name (from Mobilgas to Mobil) and modernized shield adopted in the mid-Fifties. This particular emblem was short-lived and was already near the end of its life; this 1965 map was issued just before the adoption of a new, simpler, bolder logo still in use to this day. Caption pending
Mohawk was a California-based discounter and became a secondary brand for Tidewater Associated. This map dates from 1967. Based in Council Bluffs, Iowa, the Monarch Manufacturing Company entered gasoline marketing under the Mona Motor name during the Twenties. The chain merged into Barnsdall just before the Depression hit.

Saturday, June 25, 2005