Bartholomew and the Half-Inch Layer Coloured Map 1883–1903

Abstract

In their pre-war heyday Batholomew, that most famous of British commercial mapmakers, had a huge worldwide business in every sort and scale of map and atlas for every purpose; not to mention, at one time, an extensive general printing trade. But, even so, their name became firmly associated in the public consciousness with one particular design of map on one particular scale — the half-inch to one mile (1.126 720) layer colored map of Great Britain. This study deals with the early history of the phenomenon, in the context of the firm's other work. It concludes with the completion of the England and Wales series, and the moment when it could be said, in the most elevated and objective of contexts, that the British map buyer — trade and public both — had, thanks to this map, acquired 'the Bartholomew habit'.