By Richard Truesdell

I've always had a fixation with road maps. When I was four years old, my grandfather gave me a box of maps he had collected, not long before he passed away. His collection sparked an interest in cartography that has stayed with me to this very day. In fact, I credit that box of maps--some of which I still have--to my learning to read at a very early age, and to scoring off the chart in the geography section when I took my first Iowa Test of Basic Skills. I did so well, they insisted on retesting me.

From that humble beginning with my grandfather, I now have more than 2,000 road maps--from big-scale city maps to an extensive collection of road maps of North America, Continental Europe, and Australia.

Even in the age of MapQuest, ViaMichelin, and Google Maps, I still buy road maps to document my travels.

Road maps freeze time and place. From their colorful graphics, especially of branded gasoline stations, they document roadside architecture--which is probably the source of my fascination with service-station architecture. I know I'm not alone in this interest, as many well-heeled car buffs have built or rebuilt vintage gas stations as a means to store or display their collections in a period-correct way.

Growing up during the construction of the Interstate Highway System, I followed the progress as its 46,876 miles (originally planned for 42,000 miles) tied together America from coast to coast.

Proposed routes would show up as dashed lines; then, as construction progressed, they would turn to stripes with an estimated date to open. Eventually, a solid line designated that the route was now open.

Of all the major oil company road maps, those produced by General Drafting of Convent Station, New Jersey are my favorites. Published for the brands that would become Exxon--Esso, Enco, Humble, and Standard, all of which used a red, white, and blue oval--these are among the most detailed and accurate of all road maps.

Some, like those that showed government buildings and monuments in the District of Columbia, are now highly prized by collectors. Others spotlighted events such as the 1939 New York World's Fair. And maps such as Canada's Mountain Playgrounds from the Fifties and Sixties feature spectacular cartography that could easily be framed as art.

Esso-branded maps were also produced for countries out-side the United States and Canada, wherever Esso was sold. I have several European Esso maps from the Fifties and Sixties. I've used these vintage maps when planning vintage