Caption pending True's Oil was an independent retailer operating stations in Washington under the Rainbow brand. The company was acquired by Standard of Indiana in 1959. Shortly after the issuance of this 1961 map, most Rainbow stations were rebranded to the "American" brand used by Standard outside the midwest.
River States was a regional marketer operating in the midwest and headquartered, of all places, in Evanston, Illinois -- suburb of Chicago and home of Northwestern University. This 1961 dual-branded map was issued after River States was purchased by the Murphy Oil Co. The map shows the brand names in transition, with the new Spur brand appearing alongside the River States brand it replaced after the acquisition.
Caption pending This 1939 map was issued by Ohio-based discounter Red Head during the early years of their history. The map refers to Red Head's stations as "trackside gasoline stores" and notes the absence of a middleman with its slogan "Tank car to you."
Red Head was a discounter based in Wooster, Ohio and operated in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. This map was issued in 1956. This is a later Red Head map issued during the Sixties. Red Head was purchased by Ashland in the early Seventies and most stations rebranded to Ashland's Superamerica brand shortly thereafter.
This map was issued at an unknown date by Great West Distributors Limited based in Canada's oil capital of Calgary, Alberta. Little is known about this small brand other than that it was acquired by one of Canada's largest petroleum companies — British American — in 1958. It is believed that Red Head branding was retained for a few years after the acquisition but were eventually rebranded to BA subsidiary Royalite during the mid-Sixties. The Royalite brand in turn disappeared (along with BA) after BA became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Gulf. The Canadian Red Head company is not related to the Ohio-based firm that used the Red Head brand in a handful of eastern and midwestern states. Formed by the merger of two companies in 1927, McColl-Frontenac used a "Red Indian" logo and "Marathon" brand name during the Thirties. Texaco began investment in McColl-Frontenac during the late Thirties and the world-famous Texaco brand name was introduced in 1941. The last use of the Red Indian name came shortly after the end of World War II. This map was issued in 1938, before the Texaco name became part of McColl-Frontenac's image.
The Refiners Oil Company was based in Dayton, Ohio and operated a modest-sized retail network of about 300 stations in Ohio and Indiana. The company was purchased by Standard Oil Company of Ohio in 1930 with the Refiners stations in Ohio being gradually rebranded with the Sohio name. This map was issued around 1930, just before the acquisition by Sohio. The Regal and Star & Bar brand names were two California independent discounters. The brand names were acquired by Signal in the early Sixties.
Regent was a regional refiner/marketer operating in Ontario until acquisition by McColl-Frontenac (the Canadian Texaco affiliate) in the late Fifties. Stations were rebranded to Texaco after the acquisition. Reliance was a regional independent brand based in Ontario and operating in that province. This map was issued in 1949.
This map was issued by Reliance Petroleum Ltd. during the Fifties. The Ontario-based independent was acquired by Supertest in 1959 and subsequently rebranded under the Supertest name. Republic was a regional brand operating in small, concentrated areas in the southeast. This map was issued in 1935.
Republic was a regional marketer that was acquired by Marathon during the early Sixties.
Caption pending
Richfield was a large producer/refiner founded during the early years of the century in California. Entering the retail market in 1915, the company had become a major operator throughout six west coast states by the Twenties. Richfield merged with east-coast Atlantic Refining Company in 1966 to become Atlantic Richfield, which then introduced the Arco brand to replace the existing brands. United Oil Limited was Richfield's Canadian subsidiary, but little is known about the company's history or the extent of their operations. This map was issued in 1947.
The east coast Richfield operation was originally a subsidiary of the west coast firm, but passed into Sinclair's hands during the Depression. This map was issued in 1934. In a design that foreshadowed the United States' entry into World War II, this map pictures combat aircraft accompanied by the Richfield eagle in this 1940 map. The east coast Richfield operation was by this time a subsidiary of Sinclair, and the operations were folded into that of the parent and rebranded during the early Sixties.
Purchased by Sinclair a few years prior to this 1933 map, Rio Grande operated in the far west. By the time of this 1939 map issue, Rio Grande parent Sinclair had spun off Rio Grande as part of its divestiture and reorganization of California-based Richfield.
This map was issued by Rio Grande in 1939. The company operated stations in California and other western stations and, at the time of issue, was a subsidiary of Richfield. This attractive map was issued in 1942 by the Rio Grande Oil Company. It is believed that, shortly after World War II, Rio Grande stations were converted to the Richfield brand.
This map was issued by Rose Oil Company of Vicksburg, Mississippi in 1962. The similarity of Rose's "hand" logo to that of Billups suggests a relationship between the two southern companies. The Southern Oil Company of New York was founded in the Twenties in Horseheads, New York and operated stations branded with the Rotary name in New York and Pennsylvania. Rotary maps tended to include photographs of local points of interest as well as the company's service stations. This undated map is believed to date from around 1939.
This mid-Sixties Rotary map continues the company's practice of picturing local scenes on its road maps. Unfortunately, this is probably Rotary's last custom-branded map before switching to Rand McNally generic maps for the company's final map issues before its eventual acquisition by Ashland Oil during the Seventies.
Royalite Oil Company, Ltd. was founded in Calgary, Alberta in 1921 as one of Imperial Oil's exploration affiliates. Sold by Imperial in 1949, Royalite launched its marketing operations in 1953 in Canada's western provinces. This colorful map dates from the early Sixties. Acquired by British-American in 1962, Royalite retained its identity for several years, even expanding its marketing area eastward into the Lakehead region after Anglo-Canadian was purchased by BA and its stations were rebranded to the Royalite name around 1966. The Royalite brand began to be replaced by the orange and blue Gulf logo soon after BA and Royalite were amalgamated into Gulf Oil Canada in 1969.

Saturday, June 25, 2005