Andrew McNally was born in Armagh

Armagh

Armagh is a large settlement in Northern Ireland, and the county town of County Armagh. It is a site of historical importance for both Celtic paganism and Christianity and is the seat, for both the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of Ireland, of the Archbishop of Armagh...

, Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...

, and immigrated to New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 in 1857. A printer by trade, he moved to Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

 in 1858 and got a job in a print shop owned by William Rand

William Rand (printer)

William H. Rand was born in Quincy, Massachusetts. As a young man, he was an apprentice at his brothers' print shop in Boston. He was enticed west in September, 1849, by the California Gold Rush. He settled in Los Angeles and co-founded the state's first newspaper, the Los Angeles Star...

 at a wage of $9 per week. Rand and McNally became business partners and incorporated Rand, McNally & Co.

Rand McNally

Rand McNally is an American publisher of maps, atlases, textbooks, and globes for travel, reference, commercial, and educational uses. It also provides online consumer street maps and directions, as well as commercial transportation routing software and mileage data...

 in 1868, becoming one of the largest and best-known map publishers in history. After Rand retired in 1899, McNally was president until his unexpected death from pneumonia

Pneumonia

Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...

 in 1904 at his winter home

Andrew McNally House

The Andrew McNally House in Altadena, California was the home of Andrew McNally, co-founder and president of the Rand McNally publishing company. The Queen Anne Style house is listed in the National Register of Historic Places....

 in Altadena, California

Altadena, California

Altadena is an unincorporated area and census-designated place in Los Angeles County, California, United States, approximately from the downtown Los Angeles Civic Center, and directly north of the city of Pasadena, California...

. For nearly 100 years the company was majority owned and headed by several generations of the McNally family. In 1997, the family divested its majority stake for a reported $500 million.

Sources

• Short, John Rennie (2001). Representing the Republic: Mapping the United States, 1600-1900. London: Reaktion Books. ISBN 1861890869
• New York Times, 8 May 1904. ANDREW McNALLY DEAD.; Head of Publishing Firm of Rand, McNally & Co. of Chicago.
• Rand McNally & Company: Information and Much More from Answers.com