John (Ian) Bartholomew


1890 - 1962

Cartographer. Born in Edinburgh, the son of John George Bartholomew (1860 - 1920) the noted cartographer. Bartholomew was educated in Leipzig, Paris and at the University of Edinburgh and entered the family business on the death of his father. Bartholomew inherited the task of completing his father's Times Survey Atlas of the World (1921). He went on to produce a massively expanded Times Atlas of the World which was published in six volumes between 1955 and 1960. He was also noted for designing a range of new geographical projections which better portrayed the world on flat sheets of paper. He modernised and expanded his father's company.

Bartholomew was appointed 'Cartographer Royal' in 1920. He served as Honorary Secretary and President of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society (1920-54) and was awarded the Founder's Medal of the Royal Geographical Society of London.


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