Kory Olson: "Motoring Africa: Michelin's Road Maps for an Exotic Continent”

Sponsored in partnership with California, Chicago, New York, Philip Lee Phillips, Rocky Mountain, and Texas Map Societies.

Location: Zoom

Time:  7:00 PM ET/ 6:00 PM CT/ 5:00 PM MT/ 4:00 PM PT

Title: “Motoring Africa: Michelin's Road Maps for an Exotic Continent”

Speaker: Kory Olson, Professor of French, Stockton University (New Jersey); Secretary and Vice Chair, The International Society of the History of the Map (ISHMap)

Summary: From the 1920s on, with much of Africa “pacified,” Western tourist maps showed the beginnings of the possibility of leisure travel there, even if it still required daring, time, and considerable resources. In 1929, Michelin, a well-known French tire manufacturer synonymous with travel, published their Maroc, Algérie, Tunisie in time to mark the centennial of the French arrival in North Africa. In 1958, they released a map to cross the Sahara Desert. Soon after, they began to issue fold-out road maps for their other colonial possessions of the continent, too. This talk will examine these road maps and how they highlight both the cultural and natural richness of France’s African possessions (i.e. wild game, scenic views) but prioritize tangible progress under French tutelage; part of its larger “civilizing mission,” with roads, rail, and natural resources taking cartographic precedence.

Bio: Kory Olson is a Professor of French at Stockton University (New Jersey). His work focuses on French urban and colonial cartography, French educational maps, and travel. His first monograph, The Cartographic Capital: Mapping Third Republic Paris (Liverpool UP, 2018) examines how state mapping of the capital demonstrates changing ideas (and use) of urban space. He is also co-author of the Routledge Handbook on the History of Paris since 1789 (2025). Olson’s forthcoming book, Motoring Africa with Michelin (Brill) will provide the basis for this presentation. He is currently secretary and vice-chair of The International Society of the History of the Map (ISHMap).

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