George Woolworth and Charles B. Colton were prominent mapmakers leading the American map trade in the nineteenth century. The business was founded by their father, Joseph Hutchins Colton, who bought copyrights to existing maps and oversaw their production. By the 1850s, their output had expanded to include original maps, guidebooks, atlases, and railroad maps. Everett Waddey founded his company in 1872 and grew it to be a major east coast printer operating out of Richmond.