The World According to Standard (N.J.)

Unique projection emphasizing global exports of Standard Oil.

This custom world projection was designed by the talented Richard Edes Harrison for the March 1940 edition of Fortune Magazine. The subtitle explains the purpose (and bias) of the map succinctly – “How A Great Oil Company Works in Time of Peace and How the War is Affecting It.”

Brown and yellow lines reflect the flow of Standard Oil’s crude and refined products across the globe. Major facilities are identified in the Gulf Coast, Venezuela, Indonesia, and Aruba, while the accompanying text outlines the geopolitical circumstances of the oil trade. In early 1940 the conflict simmering in Europe still seemed a distant affair to many Americans, and Standard made little attempt to hide its commercial exchanges with Hitler and Mussolini’s regimes.