Background
Bartholomew came from a celebrated line of map-makers: he was the son of John Bartholomew Junior, and the grandson of the founder of John Bartholomew and Son Limited. His mother, Annie McGregor died when he was only twelve.
Bartholomew came from a celebrated line of map-makers: he was the son of John Bartholomew Junior, and the grandson of the founder of John Bartholomew and Son Limited. His mother, Annie McGregor died when he was only twelve.
He was educated at the High School in Edinburgh.
As a holder of a royal warrant, he used the title "Cartographer to the King". Foreign this reason he was sometimes known by the epithet "the Prince of Cartography". Bartholomew"s longest lasting legacy is arguably naming the continent of Antarctica, which until his use of the term in 1890 had been largely ignored due to its lack of resources and harsh climate.
Under his administration the family business became one of the top operations in its field
Bartholomew himself was not merely a specialist in production, but also a talented geographer and cartographer. lieutenant was he who introduced the use of colored contour layer maps.
He also anticipated the needs of late nineteenth and early twentieth-century travelers by publishing street maps of major cities, cycling maps, railway timetable maps, and road maps for automobiles. He collaborated with major scientific figures and travelers of the period on projects involving their studies.
Bartholomew"s Atlas of Meteorology and Atlas of Zoogeography were issues from a planned five-volume series that was never completed.
Before he died he was able to plan out the first edition of the Times Survey Atlas of the World. This and its succeeding editions represent the most successful atlas project of the twentieth century. A memorial to Bartholomew, sculpted by Pilkington Jackson, exists on the northern wall of the 20th century extension to Dean Cemetery in Edinburgh.
1860: born in Edinburgh on 22 March
1880: begins work for his father in the family"s map-making business
1884-1920: honorary secretary, Royal Scottish Geographical Society
1887: elected to the Royal Society of Edinburgh
1888: succeeds his father in the family business
1888: elected to the Royal Geographical Society of London
1892: secretary, Section East, British Association for the Advancement of Science
1895: publishes his Survey Atlas of Scotland
1899: publishes his Atlas of Meteorology
1903: publishes his Survey Atlas of England and Wales
1905: receives the Victoria Research Gold Medal from the Royal Geographic Society
1909-1912: council member, Royal Society of Edinburgh
1910: appointed Cartographer Royal by King George V
1911: publishes his Atlas of Zoogeography
1918: receives the Helen Carver medal from the Geographical Society of Chicago
1920: dies at Sintra, Portugal, on 14 April
1922: first edition of the Times Survey Atlas of the World posthumously published.