Dictionary of National Biography, 1927 supplement/Bartholomew, John George
BARTHOLOMEW, JOHN GEORGE (1860-1920), cartographer, born at 10 Comely Green Place, Edinburgh, 22 March 1860, was the elder son of John Bartholomew, whose father founded a firm of map-engravers and publishers, by his wife, Anne, daughter of John McGregor, of Greenock. He was educated at Edinburgh High School and University, but did not take his degree; he entered at an early age the draughtsman’s office in his father’s firm, receiving instruction in cartography from his father and from E. G. Ravenstein. In 1889, on the removal of the firm to new premises in Park Road, where the name ‘Edinburgh Geographical Institute’ was adopted, he took over the entire management, and the rest of his life was devoted mainly to his work as a cartographer.
Bartholomew gave much thought to the perfecting of the technical processes of map-production as well as to the planning of new geographical works; and by keeping in touch with the latest progress of discovery and research he avoided the tendency of some map-makers to content themselves with following in the footsteps of their predecessors. The two great atlases of Scotland and of England and Wales, published in 1895 (second edition 1912) and 1908 respectively, are among the most important of his works, embodying an immense amount of geographical and statistical research; but his most ambitious undertaking was probably the Physical Atlas of the World, planned to appear in several volumes, of which, however, only two, dealing respectively with Meteorology (1899) and Zoogeography (1911), were actually published. The summit of his achievement is perhaps reached in ‘The Times’ Survey Ailas of the World, which was produced under his direction and was the result of some fifteen years’ work, though not actually completed until 1921, after his death. The large output of the firm also included, in addition to the ordinary tourist and political maps and school atlases, a number of physical and statistical maps of great scientific value, among which may be mentioned those illustrating the results of the Challenger expedition, and the series of bathymetrical surveys of the Scottish lakes; for both of these Bartholomew worked in association with his friend, Sir John Murray [q. v.] the oceanographer. Bartholomew’s work as a map-maker is distinguished both by accuracy in detail and by skill in craftsmanship; but his most important contribution to the science of cartography was his extension and improvement of the system of layer colouring for marking contours, a system by which his maps attain a high degree of delicacy and effectiveness. His skilful use of colour for other purposes, as for instance in population maps, is also noteworthy.
Although never strong in health Bartholomew was a hard worker. Apart from maps, he produced, among other works, a valuable Survey Gazetteer of the British Isles in 1904. He took an active interest in the social and intellectual life of Edinburgh, and had a genius for friendship. He was one of the founders in 1884 of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society, of which he was joint honorary secretary from the beginning until his death; and it was largely owing to his efforts that a lectureship in geography was established in Edinburgh University in 1908. He received the Victoria medal of the Royal Geographical Society in 1905 and the honorary degree of LL.D. of the university of Edinburgh in 1909.
Bartholomew married in 1889 Janet, daughter of A. Sinclair Macdonald, J.P., of Cyder Hall, near Dornoch, Sutherlandshire, by whom he had three sons and two daughters. Having gone to Portugal in the winter of 1919-1920 owing to increasing ill-health, he died at Cintra 13 April 1920; and was buried in the cemetery of São Pedro.
Bartholomew is worthy of a high place among British cartographers, his work forming perhaps the most notable individual contribution to British map-making since that of John Cary, just a century earlier.
[Geographical Journal, June 1920; Scottish Geographical Magazine, 15 July 1920; private information.]