Special Presentation On The Life Of H. M. Gousha

The one name most associated with road maps and road map collecting, above all others, is H.M. Gousha. In its 70 years, the H.M. Gousha Company printed over three and a half billion road maps and atlases for hundreds of customers. Yet very little is known about the early history of the company and even less about its founder, Harry Mathias Gousha II.

At the upcoming West Coast Map Meet, Curtis Carroll will reveal how Gousha entered the map business and track his early successes at Rand McNally. He’ll also discuss the glass ceiling that existed at Rand and how Gousha courageously started his own road map company, riding the wave of the Roaring Twenties and then struggling to keep afloat through the Great Depression.  Plus he will identify two important mentoring figures who made Gousha’s successes possible and the 1935 event that brought stability to the business but also resulted in Harry Gousha leaving the company he founded at the young age of 48.

October 27, 2012 at 4pm in the University of the Pacific’s Jacoby Center, Stockton, California. Admission is complimentary. Directions to the event can by found on the Road Map Collectors Association website: roadmaps.org