![Bartholomew grave, Grange Cemetery, Edinburgh](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c1/Bartholomew_grave%2C_Grange_Cemetery%2C_Edinburgh.JPG)
John Bartholomew (25 December 1831 – 29 March 1893) was a
Scottish cartographer
Cartography (; from grc, χάρτης , "papyrus, sheet of paper, map"; and , "write") is the study and practice of making and using maps. Combining science, aesthetics and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality (or an im ...
.
Life
Bartholomew was born in
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
, Scotland. His father,
John Bartholomew Sr.
John Bartholomew Sr. (26 April 1805 – 8 April 1861) was a Scottish cartographer and engraver.
Life
The son of George Bartholomew, engraver (1784–1871), he founded the engraving and mapmaking firm of John Bartholomew and Son Ltd. i ...
, started a cartographical establishment in Edinburgh, and he was educated in the work. He was subsequently assistant to the German geographer
August Petermann, until in 1856 he took up the management of his father's firm. For this establishment, now known as the
Edinburgh Geographical Institute
The Edinburgh Geographical Institute was founded as a map publishers by famed Scottish geographer and cartographer John George Bartholomew in 1888.
History
Around 1826 John Bartholomew Sr. opened a firm dedicated to the production of maps cal ...
, Bartholomew built up a reputation unsurpassed in
Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...
for the production of the finest cartographical work.
Bartholomew was an in-house cartographer for
George Philip. He is best known for the development of colour contouring (or
hypsometric tints
Hypsometric tints (also called layer tinting, elevation tinting, elevation coloring, or hysometric coloring) are colors placed between contour lines to indicate elevation. These tints are shown as bands of color in a graduated scheme or as a co ...
), the system of representing altitudes on a graduated colour scale, with areas of high altitude in shades of brown and areas of low altitude in shades of green. He first showcased his colour contouring system at the
Paris Exhibition of 1878; although it initially met with skepticism, it went on to become standard cartographical practice.
Among his numerous publications, particularly worthy of note is the series of maps of Great Britain reduced from the
Ordnance Survey
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to scales of ½ inch and ¾ inch to 1 mile, with relief shown by
contour line
A contour line (also isoline, isopleth, or isarithm) of a function of two variables is a curve along which the function has a constant value, so that the curve joins points of equal value. It is a plane section of the three-dimensional grap ...
s and hypsometric tints. The ½ inch series is among the finest of its kind ever produced.
Upon his retirement in 1888, John Bartholomew was succeeded in the firm by his son
John George, who extended the ½-inch series, and applied its principles to many other works. For the last six years of his life Bartholomew was living at
32 Royal Terrace in Edinburgh.
[Mitchell , Anne (1993), "The People of Calton Hill", p. 83, Mercat Press, James Thin, Edinburgh, ]
Bartholomew died in London on 29 March 1893. He is buried with his parents in
Grange Cemetery
The Grange (originally St Giles' Grange) is an affluent suburb of Edinburgh, just south of the city centre, with Morningside and Greenhill to the west, Newington to the east, The Meadows park and Marchmont to the north, and Blackford Hil ...
in Edinburgh, in the northwest section. His wife Annie McGregor (1836–1872), whom he greatly outlived, is also buried there.
See also
*
John Bartholomew and Son Ltd.
References
;Attribution
External links
Bartholomew: A Scottish Family Heritage- site maintained by the family.
Times World Atlases official websiteincluding
History and Heritage sectiondetailing landmark Times atlases
*See an 1856 map by John Bartholome
''Texas, part of New Mexico &c. / drawn & engraved by J. Bartholomew.''hosted by th
Portal to Texas History
1831 births
1893 deaths
Scientists from Edinburgh
Scottish cartographers
Burials at the Grange Cemetery
19th-century Scottish businesspeople
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