In 1856, William H. Rand established a printing office above Keen and Lee's Bookstore at 148 Lake Street in Chicago, Illinois. In 1858, he hired Andrew McNally and shortly after, they became partners and formed Rand McNally and Company.

Rand McNally has since become a prolific publisher operating in a variety of areas. They established themselves as a household name in the United States and became known around the world for their cartographic products, producing not only the maps, globes, and atlases which have become their trademark, but also a variety of trade books (in particular juvenile books), educational texts and materials, financial publications, periodicals, and a wide range of miscellaneous job printing work, including many railroad tickets and coupons. Among the firm's most popular publications were the Western Railway Guide, the Business Atlas, innumerable pocket and road maps, the Globe Library series of books, the Handy Guide series, textbooks, Goode's Atlas, Kon-Tiki by Thor Heyerdahl, the New International Atlas, the juvenile Elf Books series, and several Marguerite Henry books, including Misty of Chincoteague.

During their period of growth and expansion in the twentieth century, Rand McNally acquired a few smaller printing companies, including the W.B. Conkey Co. in 1949, a Canadian publisher (which became Rolph McNally), and a ticket and coupon printing company in Chicago.

The McNally family was the majority owner of the company for nearly 100 years, from 1899 until 1997, at which time the family decided to divest its majority stake. Since then the company has been owned by two or three different entities, most recently by Patriarch Partners.