Background Note
Founded by Caleb Stillson Hammond in 1900, and formally incorporated in 1901, the company has been known over much of its history as C.S. Hammond & Co. Unlike most map publishing in the United States, which was centered in Chicago at the beginning of the twentieth century, C.S. Hammond began work in New York City, and the company has continued to maintain its headquarters in that area.
In the mid-1980s, Hammond led the industry in the development of a computer-assisted mapmaking system by creating a database that contained the latitude and longitude of all the geographic features on their maps. The proprietary database was further enhanced by patented methods for line-smoothing and name placement and culminated with the publication in 1992 of the first all-digital world atlas, "Hammond's Atlas of the World."
The company was privately owned by the Hammond family until its assets were acquired by Langenscheidt Publishers Inc. in 1999.