The story
Andrew Hagstrom was a Swedish immigrant to the United States. in 1909. While working as a farmhand and in the meatpacking industry, he studied graphic arts at the New York Mechanics Institute. He then formed a drafting business in lower Manhattan, c. 1916.
To demonstrate his skills to potential customers, and also help them find his business, the new businessman produced a map of his shop location. The map featured exaggeratedly wide streets that offered abundant room for clear labeling of addresses, transportation, and other terrain features. The map proved popular, and he began selling it, forming the Hagstrom Map Company in 1916. He expanded coverage to all of Manhattan, then all of New York City, then its outlying regions, eventually offering over 100 maps. The New York City Subway used a Hagstrom design for its official subway maps during the 1940s and up to 1958.
In 1968, Hagstrom was acquired by Macmillan Publishers; Macmillan sold Hagstrom to the Langenscheidt publishing group in 1981. In 2010, Kappa Publishing Group acquired the Hagstrom brand from Langenscheidt after the latter decided to sell off its U.S. operations. During the 1970s and 1980s, Hagstrom's catalog included maps of a number of cities beyond the New York area, including Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Columbus, Dallas, Houston, Indianapolis, and Philadelphia. Most of these publications were out of print by the late 1990s.
Hagstrom had three retail stores: one in Lower Manhattan, one in Midtown, and one in Washington, D.C.; the last of which closed in 2010.
Andrew Hagstrom was knighted by the King of Sweden for his success in America.
From Wikipedia’s article on Hagstrom Map, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3