Holiday Trip Planner – U.S.A.

An unusual travel aid for trip planning in the mid 1950s.

“This is a TRIP PLANNER. Each blue line on the map indicates principal lanes of cross-country air and land travel. It does not show specific routes, but pictures the currents of American travel…This map, with the accompanying Mileage Guide, will assist the prospective traveler in estimating mileage, travel time, and cost of journeys more than 300 miles in length.” – Text, lower left.

This novelty map of the United States captures the nation amidst a literal and metaphorical crossroads in its transportation history. Airlines, railways, and auto manufacturers were all competing directly for their share of the ‘tourism pie’ and the pamphlet was designed as an aid when comparing different methods for travel. The mileage guide could be overlaid across the brown and blue image, with distances between points carefully measured, as the corresponding mileage varied by method of transit.

Text on the verso offers further instructions for use, plus a holiday expense planner and advertisement for the McDowell Tire Company of Kansas City, MO. Copyrighted by the Philadelphia-based Curtis Publishing Company in 1954.