Lost in longitude or confused by contour lines? Want to know all the tips and tricks for getting the most out of your atlas? Curious if paper towns still exist? "Ask a Cartographer" is your opportunity to get the facts straight from the source. Tom Vitacco, Rand McNally Publishing’s Director of GIS is here to answer your burning questions, and geek out over fascinating map lore – one exploration at a time.

This week, we are discussing Rand McNally’s history of publishing books for children…

Question: My grandmother has some old children's books that were published by Rand McNally. Can you provide more background on these books?

Tom’s answer: Thank you for the question! I can definitely provide more background on the variety of children’s books published by Rand McNally throughout the years as well as a few other book titles the company published which might not be common knowledge.

Although Rand McNally is known for our atlases, including road, reference, educational, and travel related titles, the company has also served as a general book publisher for over 100 years. I honestly do not have a list of every book that was printed, but I do know some stories about the more famous books, and I will try to share some information and a few photos related to the book releases with this post. Hopefully, you will find this trip through our book publishing history informative and interesting!

Pictured: Book publishing operations in the 1930s and a store display of children’s books.

Before I get into the actual titles, I wanted to mention a note I read in one of the old advertisements from a magazine printed in the 1930s about Rand McNally and their goals for publishing books focused on the younger generation. The theme of the ad was about the challenges associated with getting children to enjoy reading in general and how a book must “look interesting” from a child’s point of view. So, Rand McNally set out to select and design books with bright bindings, appealing illustrations, and large readable fonts. The publishing team was thinking about the intended audience and designing books with children in mind, which I find intriguing yet logical, since most of the other Rand McNally publications were maps or charts geared toward adults.

"The Real Mother Goose"

I will begin with probably the most famous book Rand McNally published entitled "The Real Mother Goose", which was released in 1917 and is one of the best-selling books for children in the United States. The rhymes found within the Mother Goose book are timeless and still well known today, covering different themes such as counting, the alphabet, lullabies, and challenging riddles. The rhymes were often considered educational as well and reflected the events and culture of that time period. There were many versions of this book printed over the years, and featured paintings and illustrations from different artists including Blanche Fisher Wright, who provided the artwork for the first edition Rand McNally produced. I recall reading these rhymes as a young child growing up in the early 1970s and then revisiting the book once I had daughters of my own.

Pictured: The 1917 edition of "The Real Mother Goose" published by Rand McNally & Company.

"The Elegant Elephant"

Another infamous title published by Rand McNally in 1944 was "The Elegant Elephant", written by Russell McCracken about a baby elephant named Eddie and his journey to become “elegant enough” to join the circus. His wife Susanne, a renowned artist who also contributed illustrations to magazines such as Publisher’s Weekly and The New Yorker, added the drawings to the book. The book included a small toy attached to the back cover, basically a sturdy mother and baby elephant shape which could be “pressed out” of the book and used as a toy to recreate parts of the story and then put back into the book for storage. This concept was known as the “Slottie” series of titles produced by Rand McNally in the 1940s and could be found in any book or department store at the time.

Pictured: "The Elegant Elephant" was published in 1944 followed by some promotional events in 1947.

To celebrate the release of "The Elegant Elephant", a promotional tour was conducted for the book which included a real elephant named Judy borrowed from a circus in Wisconsin. The elephant was hoisted up to the third floor of the Marshall Field’s store in Chicago via a freight elevator, where she performed tricks and signed autographs through a stamp held within her trunk. After the signing, Judy did not want to take the elevator back down to the ground level and stormed away causing destruction to the displays and other items in the store. A local zoo suggested the handlers create a make-shift ramp for the elephant which settled Judy down and allowed her to safely return to ground level, but the rest of the event was unfortunately cancelled after the incident.

Pictured: Promotional tour for the book release included a stop at the Marshall Field’s store in Chicago.

The Elf & Ding Dong Books

In the early 1940s, publisher Simon & Schuster worked with Western Printing and Lithographing to produce a group of twelve books called the Little Golden Books. They sold for twenty-five cents each and were extremely popular with families. Before the release of these books, Rand McNally had already published various children’s books using the title “A Rand McNally Book” at the bottom of the cover, including stories like "Jack and Jill" and "Little Boy Blue".

However, after watching the success of the Little Golden Books, Rand McNally launched a new series called the “Elf and Junior Elf” books, a set of small, illustrated hardback titles for young readers. The series featured reissues of some of the original Rand McNally Book titles, as well as some brand new books, including well-known stories such as "Little Red Riding Hood", "Little Bo-Peep", "The Gingerbread Man", and "The Three Little Pigs", along with religious titles such as "Bible Stories for Little Children". Another series produced around this time was called the “Ding Dong School Books,” published from 1953 to 1956, and featured a few lesser-known titles such as "The Robin Family", "My Big Brother", and "Mr. Meyer’s Cow".

Pictured: Children’s books from the Elf & Junior Elf series along with the Rand McNally Book and Ding Dong School Books set of titles.

Kon-Tiki and Misty of Chincoteague

Finally, the last two titles I will discuss were published by Rand McNally but are different from the books mentioned above. The first book was "Kon-Tiki", based on the travels of Thor Heyerdahl, a Norwegian scientist and explorer who sailed around 4200 miles with his crew on a small raft across the Pacific Ocean to Polynesia. Publishing the book was risky at the time since Rand McNally was taking a chance on printing the story of an unknown scientist, but the company promoted the book as an authentic and true adventure which helped it become a bestseller around the world. The book included a map on the inside flap along with photos from the journey.

Another title printed around the same time was "Misty of Chincoteague", an award-winning book which was heavily promoted by Rand McNally and was eventually made into a movie in 1962. Based on a true story, the tale was set within a small island town in Virginia, where a family tries to raise a pony born to a wild horse. The tale chronicles the adventures and mishaps that occur as the two children raise the pony before releasing it back to the wild.

Pictured: "Kon-Tiki" on the left along with an image from an advertisement showing the Rand McNally book as part of the raft plus "Misty of Chincoteague" on the right.

Unfortunately, the children’s book series were all sold off to other publishers over the years, so we no longer print and publish books like this for young readers. We still produce other titles geared towards kids which I covered in a previous post so please check them out when you have a chance. Plus, we have published a few “gift books” in recent years that did not contain maps, such as the American Journey book describing the history of the old road atlas covers and coloring books for adults. So, while we do not publish many true books anymore, we still have a few non-map related titles to check out if you are interested.

Thanks again to Steve Wiertz, a Senior GIS Analyst here at Rand McNally Publishing, for providing much of the content and historical facts for this post.

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