James Fullarton Muirhead (1853-1934) was a Scottish editor and writer of travel guides, associated with the Baedeker publishing house for many years, prior to starting his own publishing house. [1]
James Fullarton Muirhead was born in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1853. He was educated at the Craigmount School in Edinburgh and at the University of Edinburgh, where he obtained a doctorate. Following graduation in 1876, he spent three years at Chambers's Encyclopaedia. Muirhead thereafter commenced a thirty-five year association (1879-1914) with the Baedeker publishing house, where he was the editor of the English and American editions of Baedeker's Handbook for Travellers, as well as writing separate guides based on Muirhead's own travels. [1] Muirhead's guides based on his personal travels included guides to the United States, England [1] and Canada. [2] It was emphasized in the guides based on his own travels, such as the guides to the United States and Canada, that Muirhead had "personally visited the greater part of the districts described". [2] For example, Muirhead spent three years travelling the United States, from 1890 to 1893, to obtain the information for his travel guide of that country. [1] He also used his American travels to write A Land of Contrasts, published in 1898, [3] in addition to his work on the related Baedeker guidebook.
Muirhead also translated poetry and wrote for the Encyclopædia Britannica. [1]
Muirhead's association with Baedeker, a company long established and based in Germany, ended with the outbreak of the First World War. He thereafter assisted his brother Findlay in the development of the Blue Guides. [1] Both brothers had been longtime associates of Baedeker. In 1915, they acquired the rights to Murray's Handbooks for Travellers , which formed the basis for the development of the Blue Guides.
Verlag Karl Baedeker, founded by Karl Baedeker on 1 July 1827, is a German publisher and pioneer in the business of worldwide travel guides. The guides, often referred to simply as "Baedekers", contain, among other things, maps and introductions; information about routes and travel facilities; and descriptions of noteworthy buildings, sights, attractions and museums, written by specialists.
Archibald David Constable was a Scottish publisher, bookseller and stationer.
Troon is a town in South Ayrshire, situated on the west coast of Ayrshire in Scotland, about eight miles north of Ayr and three miles northwest of Glasgow Prestwick Airport.
Karl Ludwig Johannes Baedeker was a German publisher whose company, Baedeker, set the standard for authoritative guidebooks for tourists.
Muir Glacier is a glacier in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve in the U.S. state of Alaska. It is currently about 0.7 km (0.43 mi) wide at the terminus. As recently as the mid-1980s the glacier was a tidewater glacier and calved icebergs from a wall of ice 90 m (200 feet) tall.
James Bruce of Kinnaird was a Scottish traveller and travel writer who confirmed the source of the Blue Nile. He spent more than a dozen years in North Africa and Ethiopia and in 1770 became the first European to trace the origins of the Blue Nile from Egypt and Sudan.
A guide book or travel guide is "a book of information about a place designed for the use of visitors or tourists". It will usually include information about sights, accommodation, restaurants, transportation, and activities. Maps of varying detail and historical and cultural information are often included. Different kinds of guide books exist, focusing on different aspects of travel, from adventure travel to relaxation, or aimed at travelers with different incomes, or focusing on sexual orientation or types of diet.
Richard Pococke was an English-born churchman, inveterate traveller and travel writer. He was the Bishop of Ossory (1756–65) and Meath (1765), both dioceses of the Church of Ireland. However, he is best known for his travel writings and diaries.
David Welsh FRSE was a Scottish divine and academic. He was Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1842. In the Disruption of 1843 he was one of the leading figures in the establishment of the Free Church of Scotland.
Lasswade is a village and civil parish in Midlothian, Scotland, on the River North Esk, nine miles south of Edinburgh city centre, contiguous with Bonnyrigg and between Dalkeith to the east and Loanhead to the west. Melville Castle lies to the north east. The Gaelic form is Leas Bhaid, meaning the "clump at the fort."
Richard Ford (1796–1858) was an English travel writer known for his books on Spain. Born in Chelsea into a high-class family and educated in Oxford, he first moved to Spain in 1830, where he travelled extensively and collected notes and drawings. Upon return to England, he wrote an account of his journeys in A Handbook for Travellers in Spain, first published in 1845, described as one of masterpieces of the travel literature genre. An erudite art collector, he befriended many important art and literature figures of his time. Ford was a skilled drawer himself, and made illustrations for his own and his friends' books.
The Blue Guides are a series of detailed and authoritative travel guidebooks focused on art, architecture, and archaeology along with the history and context necessary to understand them. A modicum of practical travel information, with recommended restaurants and hotels, is also generally included.
John Murray III (1808–1892) was a British publisher, third of the name at the John Murray company founded in London in 1777.
Craigmount School was a private school originally for boys, but for most of its history for girls, in Edinburgh. It opened in 1874 and closed in 1966.
Glacier Montanvert was the common name in the 18th century for a portion of the Alps glacier, now known as Mer de Glace, on the northern slopes of the Mont Blanc massif. Alternative spellings of Montanvert include Montainvert and Montvers. The Glacier Montanvert was a popular tourist destination of European travellers and is referenced in numerous travel writings and novels of the time.
Shewalton House and estate were composed of the 'Lands of Shewalton' and the laird's dwelling, originally a tower castle and later a mansion house on the River Irvine in the Shewalton area, two miles from Irvine and west of Drybridge village, East Ayrshire, Dundonald Parish, Scotland. In 1883 the Boyle's estate of Shewalton was 2,358 acres in extent in Ayrshire and was worth at that time £2,708 a year.
Albert Socin was a Swiss orientalist, who specialized in the research of Neo-Aramaic, Kurdish and contemporary Arabic dialects. He also made contributions to the geography, archaeology, religion, art and literature of the Middle East.
James Muirhead (1925–1999) was an Australian judge.
Thomas Constable FRSE was a Scottish printer and publisher.
Claud Muirhead (1782–1872) was an 18th-century Scottish printer and publisher and editor of the Edinburgh Advertiser