Automobile Tours Pocket Edition

“Covering Approximately 50,000 Miles and Over 5,000 Towns in the U.S.”

This pocket-sized ‘Deluxe’ guide to America’s road network was issued in New York in 1924 by Autoguide Publishing Co., Inc. The work was sponsored by Western Union Life, which wishes the reader a Pleasant Trip (assuming they are properly insured). The book is broken up into two sections, Tours and the Index.

The former offers mileage itineraries for many of the most popular routes across America, beginning with the National Old Trails Road. A simple overview of the tour is followed by a list of encountered towns, with distances between noted as the only point of reference. Several dozen pages are dedicated to the Alphabetical Index, which catalogs the thousands of settlements served by the various highways – many of these rural communities are mere ghost towns today. Also of interest is a section titled ‘Motor Car Troubles and How to Detect Them.’

The volume concludes with a simple fold-out map that highlights the various tours in bright red. As a whole, the punchy little volume and its lavish binding were likely more of a status symbol than a practical aid to navigation. Only the best for the customers of Western Union Life!