The Pennsylvania Turnpike opened in 1940, the first four lane limited access highway in the United States. It ran from Irwin near Pittsburgh to Middlesex just west of Harrisburg and was built largely on the right-of-way of an abandoned rail line. The turnpike was modeled after the autobahns constructed in Germany in the 1930's.

Few maps were published during the war years, 1943-45, to save paper needed by the mushrooming federal government managing the war effort and also because no one, except servicemen, traveled much.

	1940 FREEDOM - RAND MCNALLY. The Freedom Oil Company was located in (where else?) Freedom, Pennsylvania. It used the logo of a bulldog on its maps. This copy needs a good cleaning.
	1941 SUNOCO - RAND MCNALLY. Sunoco is based in Philadelphia and ran a series of colorful historical covers like this one from the early 1930's into the 40's. The Sun Oil Company was founded by Robert Pew in 1886 and is one of the oldest surviving oil companies; it is still a major gasoline distributor in the east.
	1942 NATIONAL REFINING CO. - RAND MCNALLY. The National Refining Company was founded in 1882 and was a large refiner/marketer operating through the midwest and eastern states and had a subsidiary that marketed in parts of eastern Canada. During the fifties, National Refining Company's United States operations were acquired by Ashland.
	c1943 ESSO - GENERAL DRAFTING CO. This map is similar to the 1942 Esso map except it is not dated on the cover like that one, and may have been issued early in 1943. Most oil companies did not distribute maps during the war years (1943-45). Esso distributed war theatre maps of Europe and the Pacific also made by General Drafting Co. The Map Image illustrates General Drafting work in the 40's.
	1944 TEXACO - RAND MCNALLY. Few maps were published during WW2, but this one has the Rand McNally code Z4215 indicating a map issued in 1944 prepared from a 1942 base map. The 'paper is precious' logo also indicates it was issued during the war years. New York is on one side of the map and Pennsylvania on the other. Texaco paired Pennsylvania with New York, New Jersey, and Ohio on maps during the 40's.
	1945 MARATHON - RAND MCNALLY. The map has the Rand McNally code 453613V indicating a 1945 base year map. Whether it was issued in 1945 is another question, however there are no other dating references. The Marathon company was based in Findley, Ohio. It was bought out by US Steel, and then spun off again.
	1946 RICHFIELD - RAND MCNALLY. The Pennsylvania map has the Rand McNally code 453613V and 1940 census data so it is a 1945 base year map. However, the US map on the verso is a 1946 map, so this road map was issued in 1946. This particular one has a dirty cover. The Richfield Oil Corporation merged with Atlantic in 1966 to form Atlantic Richfield, later named ARCO.
	1947 CALSO - H. M. GOUSHA. This map includes New Jersey. Calso is the trademark of the California Oil Co. who marketed gas for Standard Oil of California as a subsidiary. In the fifties, the logo was changed to Chevron.
	1948 PENNZOIL - H. M. GOUSHA. Pennzoil was an original Pennsylvania oil fields company until it moved to Texas. They continued to operate a refinery in Oil City, PA, into the 1990's. The Map Image illustrates Gousha work in the 40's.
	1949 GULF - RAND MCNALLY. Gulf must have loved this 'film noir' cover design, or were just trying to save money. They used it for 10 years from the early 40's to early 50's.