Scottish cartographer, born in Edinburgh on the 22nd of March 1860, the elder son of John Bartholomew, also a cartographer. J. G. Bartholomew was educated at the Edinburgh high school and university, and succeeded his father as head of the business of the Edinburgh Geographical Institute. In this capacity he maintained and improved the unsurpassed reputation for scientific cartography and exquisite reproduction which the firm had already acquired; in particular, he extended and popularized the use of “layer” colours exhibiting relief of the land, applying this method not only in the reduction of ordnance survey maps but in many other instances, including general atlases, of which the finest example is that published by The Times since the close of the World War. Bartholomew was associated with Sir John Murray and others in connection with the mapping of results of the “Challenger” expedition, the bathymetrical survey of the Scottish lochs, and other scientific studies. He planned a physical atlas on a large scale and with the cooperation of Dr. A. J. Herbertson published the Atlas of Meteorology in 1899, which at once became a standard work. The volume on zoögeography, in collaboration with W. Eagle Clarke and P. H. Grimshaw, followed in 1911. His written works include a bibliography of authoritative maps of all countries (1891) and a gazetteer of the British Isles; and he interested himself greatly in geographical education, helping to found the lectureship in geography in the university of Edinburgh, as well as the Royal Scottish Geographical Society. He was one of the founders and for many years honorary secretary of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society. He died at Cintra on the 13th of April 1920, but the management of the Edinburgh Geographical Institute remained in his family.
