The National Library of Scotland (NLS) has just ‘gone live’ with the initial results of its project to document the records of Bartholomew map makers. The website is clear and easy to navigate, it contains many links to further material and includes fascinating images and maps.

“The Bartholomew Archive is the remarkable record of the Edinburgh-based firm of map engravers, printers and publishers, John Bartholomew & Son Ltd. It is one of the most extensive cartographic archives available for research in a public institution.”

A three-year NLS project to document the archive began in 2007. This project is funded by the John R Murray Charitable Trust.

Members of the Bartholomew family were engaged in map-making from the first known map engraving work of George Bartholomew in 1825. John Bartholomew junior started printing operations before 1870. For more than a century afterwards the Bartholomew firm specialised in high-quality map production.

Publishers HarperCollins and John C Bartholomew and family donated the firm's business records, working maps and plates to the NLS between 1983 and 2008. John Bartholomew & Son Ltd had donated copies of their published maps and atlases for many years previously.

The Bartholomew Archive Home Page