John Bartholomew

John Bartholomew Jr (25 December 1831 – 30 March 1893) was a Scottish cartographer.

Life
Bartholomew was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. His father, John Bartholomew Sr, started the cartographical establishment in Edinburgh, and he was trained in the firm. He was subsequently assistant to the German geographer August Petermann, until 1856 when he took up the management of his father's company. For this establishment, Bartholomew built up a reputation unsurpassed in Great Britain for the production of the finest cartographical work.

He is best known for the commercial development of colour contouring (or hypsometric tints), the system of representing altitudes on a graduated colour scale, with areas of high altitude in shades of brown and areas of low altitude in shades of green. He first showcased his colour contouring system at the Paris Exhibition of 1878; although it was initially met with skepticism, it went on to become a standard cartographical practice.

Among his numerous publications, particularly worthy of note is the series of maps of Great Britain reduced from the Ordnance Survey to scales of half-inch and quarter-inch to 1 mile, with relief shown by contour lines and hypsometric tints. The half-inch series is among the finest of its kind ever produced.

Upon his retirement in 1888, John Bartholomew was succeeded in the firm by his son John George, who extended the half-inch series, and applied its principles to many other works. For the last six years of his life Bartholomew was living at 32 Royal Terrace in Edinburgh.

Bartholomew died in London on 30 March 1893. He is buried with his parents in Grange Cemetery in Edinburgh, in the northwest section. His wife Annie McGregor (1836–1872), whom he greatly outlived, is also buried there.