Thomas Guide
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{{Mergeto | Rand McNally | Talk:Rand McNally#Merge proposal | date=May 2008 }}
{{primarysources|date=January 2008}}
[[Image:Thomasbrosmapsheadquarters.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Thomas Bros. Maps (now Thomas Guide) headquarters in Irvine]]'''Thomas Guide''' is the title of a series of paperback, spiral-bound [[Atlas (cartography)|atlas]]es featuring detailed street maps of various large metropolitan areas in the [[United States]], in the metro areas of [[Southern Idaho|Boise]], [[Las Vegas metropolitan area|Las Vegas]], [[Southern California|Los Angeles]], [[Oakland]], [[Phoenix Metropolitan Area|Phoenix]], [[Portland metropolitan area|Portland]], [[Reno, Nevada|Reno-Tahoe]], [[Sacramento]], [[Salem, Oregon|Salem]], [[San Francisco]], [[Seattle metropolitan area|Seattle]], [[Spokane, Washington|Spokane]], [[Tucson, Arizona|Tucson]], and [[Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area|Washington, D.C.]]. Road Atlas titles are [[Arizona|Arizona including Las Vegas]], [[California|California Including portions of Nevada]], and [[Pacific Northwest|Pacific Northwest covering Washington, Oregon, Western Idaho, Southwestern British Columbia]]. The map books are usually arranged by county; for example, separate ''Thomas Guides'' have been published for [[Los Angeles County]] and [[San Diego County]]. There are also guides that will have two or three counties combined (for example, Los Angeles and [[Orange County, California|Orange County]]), or guides that cover a metropolitan area (for instance, the [[San Francisco Bay Area]]). Each guide has a detailed index of streets and points of interest, as well as arterial maps for easy page location.
'''Thomas Bros. Maps''', the publishers of the ''Thomas Guide'', was started in [[Oakland, California]] in 1915 by [[cartographer]] George Coupland Thomas and his two brothers, who were business partners. The company relocated its headquarters to [[Los Angeles]] in 1940, and to suburban [[Irvine, California]] in the 1950s. George Coupland Thomas died in 1955 and the ownership of the company was transferred to his widow and the Thomas family. The company remained privately owned until it was purchased by and became a wholly owned subsidiary of [[Rand McNally|Rand McNally & Co.]] in 1999. Updated editions are released annually. Folding map products are created as a derivative of the Thomas Guides, which carry the Rand McNally name, but mention that the content is from the Thomas Guides. Rand McNally also releases Thomas Guide-like Street Guides and traditional fold-out versions of maps covering regions of North America not covered by the Thomas Guides.
''Thomas Guide'' atlases might rarely be referred to as a ''Thomas Brothers'' (for ''Thomas Bros. Maps''). However, "Thomas Guides" are so commonly used in [[Southern California]] that governments, businesses, individuals and even emergency response agencies will often refer to a "Thomas Guide" page number and map grid to help specify a location.<ref>[http://www.sigalert.com/incidents.asp?Region=Greater+Los+Angeles Los Angeles and Orange County Traffic Report]. (Most incidents, when expanded, will have a Thomas Guide reference on the first line.)</ref>
Businesses often use the large ''Thomas Guide'' wall maps. One common use for the wall maps is for delivery businesses, such as a local pizza restaurant. In addition, custom versions of the guides and wall maps are produced for businesses and governments that include such things as [[census tract]]s, locations of government facilities, [[drainage basin|watershed]] boundaries, and political boundaries.
There are also [[CD-ROM]] digital editions of the ''Thomas Guide'' atlases available ([[Microsoft Windows]] only). In addition, the Thomas Brothers digital database can be licensed to companies and governments to use as a base map for [[geographical information systems]] applications.
==External links==
*[http://www.randmcnally.com/ Rand McNally]
==References==
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Companies established in 1915]]
[[Category:Media companies of the United States]]
[[Category:Companies based in Oakland, California]]
[[Category:Companies based in Los Angeles, California]]
[[Category:Companies based in Irvine, California]]
[[Category:Atlases]]
[[Category:Map companies of the United States]]