1943 MacDonald Gill Pictorial Map of the World: The WWII Atlantic Charter

Leslie MacDonald Gill (October 6, 1884 - January 14, 1947), known as 'Max Gill,' was a British cartographer, architect, and graphic designer. Known as MacDonald Gill or Max Gill, Gill was born in Brighton and was the younger brother of Eric Gill, a leading personality in the Arts and Crafts movement. Gill was educated at the Chichester Prebendal School, and the Holyrood School, and took classes in drawing and engraving at a local college. He began creating maps as a young map for map drawing competition in magazines. At 16, Gill was apprenticed as an architect to Leonard Pilkington. He relocated to London in 1903, where he worked for the ecclesiastical architectural firm of Sir Charles Nicholson and Hubert C. Corlette. While there, he attended meetings at the Art Workers Guild and attended classes at the Central School of Arts and Crafts. He went into business with his brother, Eric Gill, in 1908, doing architectural designs and murals. His first commercial map, a 'Wind-Dial' map for a gentlemanly estate in Buckinghamshire, was drawn in 1909. Gill is best known for his 1914 Wonderground Map, a pictorial map of the London Underground commissioned by Frank Pick, used to promote tourism among Londoners by using the Underground. He probably received the commission through is associate with Gerard Meynell of the Westminster Press. He is also known for multiple other pictorial maps and is credited with inaugurating the 'Golden Age of Pictorial Cartography.' Gill also designed the upper-case lettering used on headstones and war memorials by the Imperial War Graves Commission. More by this mapmaker...

The Denoyer-Geppert Company (1916 - 1984) was a Chicago-based publishing firm that dealt in maps, atlases, and spherical cartography (globes). For 68 years, the company played a critical role in the education of the world’s students. Founded in 1916 by Otto E. Geppert (the salesman) and L. Philip Denoyer (the cartographer/editor). Denier was born in Milwaukee in 1875 and was a high school principal by the age of 32. He was also completing graduate work at the University of Chicago at the same time. He was appointed the first Professor of Geology and Geography at the State Teacher’s College - La Crosse (University of Wisconsin) in 1909. Legend has it that Denoyer met Geppert while teaching one of his classes, when the latter came up from Chicago to sit in on one. Geppert was working as a salesman for A.J. Nystrom and Company, which today self-identifies as ‘the United States’ older publisher of wall maps and globes for classroom use.’ Geppert was there to sell Denoyer on joining the team at Nostrum, believing that his expertise could benefit the company. Three years later they founded the Denoyer-Geppert Company, and within six years had moved from a 500 square foot space into the 50,000 square foot Swedish-American Telephone Building. By 1922, their catalogue consisted of ‘1,200 maps, charts, globes, and associate aids in teaching geography and history and 800 brilliantly illuminated biological charts and anatomical models.’ In 1967, Denoyer-Geppert was contracted by NASA to build the first official and accurate ‘lunar globe’, based on information gathered by Apollo 10 astronauts. The company made 200 of these globes, the first of which was presented by the astronauts of Apollo 10 to President Nixon. Rand McNally, one of their major competitors, bought out their inventory of maps and globes in 1984. Denoyer-Geppert left the Swedish-American Telephone Building and reinvented the company as the Denoyer-Geppert Science Company, which specializes in anatomical models for classrooms. The Swedish-American Telephone Company has been named a historic landmark and was remodeled into loft apartments. Learn More...

George Philip (1800 - 1882) was a map publisher and cartographer active in the mid to late-19th century. Philip was born into a Calvinst family in Huntly, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Around 1819 he apprenticed himself to William Grapel, a Liverpool printer and bookseller. Fifteen years later, in 1834, Philip founded his own Liverpool book and map firm. Philip's earliest cartographic ventures were mostly educational material issued in tandem with John Bartholomew Sr., August Petermann, and William Hughes. In 1848, Philip admitted his son, George Philip Jr. (1823 - 1902) into the firm, renaming it George Philip and Son Ltd. George Philip Jr. ran the firm until his death in 1902, by which time it had developed into a major publishing concern. His successors established the London Geographical Institute, a factory where they embraced modern printing techniques to produce thousands of economical and high quality maps. In April 1988, George Philip & Son was acquired by Octopus Publishing, a branch of Reed International. Nonetheless, today the firm trades and publishes to this day as George Philip and Son. Learn More...