Monthly Archives: March 2019

R.L. Polk & Co: From General Motors to Google

The Polks were one of Detroit’s earliest prominent business families. Ralph Lane Polk, the founder, obtained financing in 1872 for his first directories from James Scripps, who would later go on to publish the Detroit News. When legendary General Motors chairman Alfred Sloan took control of the car giant in in the early 1920s, he […]