The Atlas Corporation, was formed in 1928, from a merger of the United Corporation, an investment firm started in 1923 with $40,000, with Atlas Utilities and Investors Ltd. The corporation specialized in capital formation and management. In 1929, Atlas was a $12,000,000 investment trust. The company was able to shrewdly weather the stock market crash and continue to grow through the 1930s and 1940s. The corporation was founded by Floyd Odlum

Floyd Odlum

Floyd Bostwick Odlum was a wealthy lawyer and industrialist. He has been described as "possibly the only man in the United States who made a great fortune out of the Depression"...

 and his brother-in-law Boyd Hatch.

With Floyd Odlum as president and Boyd Hatch as vice-president, Atlas invested, managed or controlled numerous industries, including Greyhound Lines

Greyhound Lines

Greyhound Lines, Inc., based in Dallas, Texas, is an intercity common carrier of passengers by bus serving over 3,700 destinations in the United States, Canada and Mexico, operating under the well-known logo of a leaping greyhound. It was founded in Hibbing, Minnesota, USA, in 1914 and...

, RKO, and Paramount

Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...

 motion picture studios, the Hilton

Hilton Hotels Corporation

Hilton Worldwide is a global hospitality company. It is owned by the Blackstone Group, a private equity firm. As of July 2011 Hilton brands encompass 3,750 hotels with over 600,000 rooms in 84 countries...

 hotel chain, the Bonwit Teller

Bonwit Teller

Bonwit Teller was a department store in New York City founded by Paul Bonwit in 1895 at Sixth Avenue and 18th Street. In 1897 Edmund D. Teller was admitted to the partnership and the store moved to 23rd Street, East of Sixth Avenue...

 (acquired 1934) and Franklin Simon & Co.

Franklin Simon & Co.

Franklin Simon & Co. was a department store chain specializing in women's fashions and furnishing based in New York City. The store was conceived as a collection of specialty shops rather than a traditional department store...

 (acquired 1936) ladies’ apparel stores, Madison Square Garden

Madison Square Garden

Madison Square Garden, often abbreviated as MSG and known colloquially as The Garden, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the New York City borough of Manhattan and located at 8th Avenue, between 31st and 33rd Streets, situated on top of Pennsylvania Station.Opened on February 11, 1968, it is the...

, and various mines, utility companies, aviation related businesses, and banks. After Atlas Corporation acquired the Bonwit Teller ladies’ apparel stores, Floyd Odlum convinced his wife, Hortense Odlum

Hortense Odlum

Hortense McQuarrie Odlum was the first woman president of Bonwit Teller Department Store in New York City and the wife of financier Floyd Odlum....

, to become involved in the store’s operations. She became the first female president of a major department store chain when she became president of Bonwit Teller in 1934. In 1948, Howard Hughes

Howard Hughes

Howard Robard Hughes, Jr. was an American business magnate, investor, aviator, engineer, film producer, director, and philanthropist. He was one of the wealthiest people in the world...

 acquired controlling interest in RKO from Atlas. The Atlas Missile program was named after the Atlas Corporation, the contractor through its Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation, (later Convair

Convair

Convair was an American aircraft manufacturing company which later expanded into rockets and spacecraft. The company was formed in 1943 by the merger of Vultee Aircraft and Consolidated Aircraft, and went on to produce a number of pioneering aircraft, such as the Convair B-36 bomber, and the F-102...

) subsidiary, which was used in the Mercury missions to send astronauts into orbit.

Today, Atlas Corporation is a public company traded on the Pink Sheets with ticker ATLR. Company has ownership in natural resources investments.