Bartholomew Archive: Business Record
Bartholomew Archive: Business record Scope of the archive The Bartholomew Archive incorporates the administrative, production and financial records and correspondence of the firm of John Bartholomew & Son and predecessors, reference and production copies of maps and atlases, copper and steel engraved plates, glass printing plates, and personal papers of members of the Bartholomew family of engravers and map makers. The papers span the period 1820 to 2001, with comprehensive business records for the period 1888-1980. This inventory identifies the principal series of all records created by the firm, although the maps and atlases and copper and glass plates are maintained separately: more detailed lists of these are in process and can be consulted within the Map Library. Summary history George Bartholomew (1784-1871) established himself as an engraver in Edinburgh c.1800 after a period of apprenticeship with the engraver Daniel Lizars. Initially, he engraved illustrations and stationery, but later moved into map engraving, and is identified with Lothian’s plans of Edinburgh (1825) and plans of Leith for Wood’s Town Atlas (1828). His son John (1805-61) undertook his apprenticeship with W.H. Lizars, and subsequently did much work for Lizars and for major publishers like A. & C. Black, Blackwood, Collins and W. & A.K. Johnston. He also engraved town plans (the 1832 GPO Directory Plan of Edinburgh) and maps for atlases (as Lizars’ Edinburgh General Atlas 1835 and Black’s General Atlas 1846). John established commercial premises at 4 North Bridge in 1859, shared with A. & C. Black, before relinquishing control to his son and retiring in the same year.
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