Seeing Chicago the Motor Coach Way

“Open Air to Everywhere” along the lines of the Chicago Motor Coach Company.

This interesting pocket map and tour guide to Chicago was published around 1923 by the Clason Map Company. It was distributed as a promotional item on behalf of the Chicago Motor Coach Company, which operated bus tours on three routes across the North, West, and South Sides of the Windy City. These are shown in brown, green, and orange, respectively, in the simple street plan of the city in the upper left.

Nearly 80 points of interest – parks, beaches, hotels, and more – are numbered and identified in the adjacent list. Competing transit options like the elevated railway and streetcar lines are omitted from the image. The lower portion of the sheet is occupied by an overview of the Shopping District Service, including a Shopper’s Map of the Loop that names many of the city’s major merchants. The verso provides several small photographs and descriptive text of major attractions along each of the three tours. Discussion on the ongoing construction of Tribune Tower helps to date the map conclusively between 1923 and 1925.