Collins Bartholomew

Bartholomew was the only survivor of a number of important map publishers in Scotland, and was known for a prolific output and variety of maps and atlases for academic, commercial and travel purposes, including the popular 62-sheet Half-Inch to One Mile map series of Great Britain, which transmuted into the 1:100,000 National map series in the 1970s. It was eventually discontinued owing largely to stiff competition from the state-financed Ordnance Survey. John Bartholomew Junior was credited with having pioneered the use of hypsometric tints or layer colouring on maps in which low ground is shown in shades of green and higher ground in shades of brown, then eventually purple and finally white. It is his son John George who is attributed with being the first to bring the name 'Antarctica' into popular use as the name for the Southern Continent, and for the adoption of red or pink as the colour for the British Empire. The firm's first major work as a publisher was The Royal Scottish Geographical Society's Atlas of Scotland (1895), later called the Survey Atlas of Scotland, which was followed by the Survey Atlas of England and Wales (1903). In 1922, the company was responsible for the production of a major new atlas for The Times newspaper: The Times Survey Atlas of the World. This would later become The Times Comprehensive Atlas, which received a boost when a new Millennium edition was published using digital map production technology for the first time. The atlas continues to be a 'must-have' for libraries, on account of its almost unrivalled size combined with a policy of detailed updating. Another great Bartholomew reference atlas was the Citizen's Atlas of the World, which ran through ten editions (1898–1952). Other publications include two volumes of the ambitious Physical Atlas: Meteorology (1899) and Zoogeography (1911), based on the landmark Berghaus Physikalischer Atlas. John Bartholomew & Son Ltd officially ceased to exist when it was de-registered at Companies House in 1995. A new company using the name John Bartholomew & Son Ltd (Companies House SC194433) was registered in Scotland on 18 March 1999. It is based at Hardengreen Business Park just outside Edinburgh, and is owned by former staff.

The Maps Reading Room of the National Library of Scotland (which is located near the former Duncan Street offices) contains the extensive archives of the Bartholomew company, a product of a long and fruitful association between the two organisations. A book, still available from the company at its post-1995 address in Bishopbriggs, Glasgow (Bartholomew - 150 Years), details the history and achievements of Bartholomews’ up to the time of its 150th anniversary in 1976, not very long after the last of the copperplate engravers retired and the company started to pioneer the use of geographic information systems (GIS) and computer-generated mapping for its cartographic publishing and for the selling of map data. Robert Gordon Bartholomew, of the sixth generation of cartographers, has extensively researched and documented the genealogy not only of his own branch of the family, but also of several other Bartholomew families. His work upholds the belief held by many Bartholomews that all Bartholomews of Scottish origin are related. John G. Bartholomew built and inhabited "Overton House" in Ealing, London, now home of a lay centre (Benedictine Study and Arts Centre).