John George Bartholomew
John George Bartholomew FRSE FRGS (22 March 1860 – 14 April 1920) was a British cartographer and geographer. As a holder of a royal warrant, he used the title "Cartographer to the King"; for this reason he was sometimes known by the epithet "the Pr
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John George Bartholomew FRSE FRGS (22 March 1860 – 14 April 1920) was a British cartographer and geographer. As a holder of a royal warrant, he used the title "Cartographer to the King"; for this reason he was sometimes known by the epithet "the Prince of Cartography".[1]
Bartholomew's longest lasting legacy is arguably naming the continent of Antarctica,[2] which until his use of the term in 1890 had been largely ignored due to its lack of resources and harsh climate. Bartholomew came from a celebrated line of map-makers - he was the son of Annie McGregor (d.1872) and John Bartholomew Junior, and the grandson of the founder of John Bartholomew and Son Ltd.
He was educated at the Royal High School, Edinburgh.
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. It was he who introduced the use of colored contour layer maps; he also anticipated the needs of the late nineteenth and early 20-century travelers by publishing street maps of major cities, cycling maps, railway timetable maps, and road maps for automobiles.
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