170 Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. [Sess. 
John George Bartholomew, LL.D. (Edin.), F.R.G.S., Geographer 
and Cartographer to the King. By Geo. G. Chisholm, M.A., 
B.Sc., Reader in Geography, Edinburgh University, Secretary 
to the Royal Scottish Geographical Society. Communicated by 
The General Secretary. 
(MS. received October 19, 1921. Read November 7, 1921.) 
It was in the latter part of 1883 or early in 1884 that I became acquainted 
with the subject of this notice. At that time I was settled in London, and 
on the occasion of a short visit to Edinburgh I called on the late Professor 
Geikie, who said to me, “ There’s a man I want you to know, who has got 
his head screwed on the right way on the subject of maps.” He named 
Mr Bartholomew, and recommended me to call on him, which I at once 
did. I found him at his office in Chambers Street, engaged on the actual 
work of map-drawing, and he straightway proceeded to give me his ideas 
on this subject and to indicate the methods which he wished to see 
displaced. Twenty-five years or so passed, during which, owing to the 
distance between our abodes, our meetings were infrequent ; still there was, 
I believe, scarcely a visit of either of us to either end without our meeting 
somewhere — mostly at the London end, where the increasing business and 
reputation of the firm with which Mr Bartholomew was connected fre- 
quently brought him. Naturally, our meetings were more frequent when 
Edinburgh once more became my home in 1908, and still more so after my 
appointment to the secretaryship of the Royal Scottish Geographical 
Society. 
Meantime the remark which Professor Geikie had made in first speaking 
of him to me had been amply verified. At that time Mr Bartholomew was 
a young man, under twenty-four years of age. He was born at Edinburgh 
on the 22nd of March 1860. Yet he had already for several years taken 
an active share in the work of the cartographical establishment then 
belonging to his father. From 1888, when accordingly he was only 
twenty-eight, he had the entire management of the business. In 1889 
he married ; and in that year, too, the business was transferred from 
Chambers Street to Park Road and became known as the Edinburgh Geo- 
graphical Institute — a name retained at the new premises in Duncan Street, 
to which the business was removed in 1911. 
Dr Bartholomew’s management of the business was signalised from an 
