Alexander Keith Johnston FRSE FRGS FGS FEGS LLD (died 9 July 1871) was a Scottish geographer and cartographer.
Alexander Keith Johnston FRSE FRGS FGS FEGS LLD (died 9 July 1871) was a Scottish geographer and cartographer.
He was born at Kirkhill near Penicuik, south of Edinburgh. He was the son of Andrew Johnston and Isabel Keith. His brother was Thomas Brumby Johnston FRSE. [1]
After an education at the High School and the University of Edinburgh he was apprenticed to the Edinburgh engraver and mapmaker, James Kirkwood [ citation needed ] and William Home Lizars. [2] In 1826, he joined his brother William (who would become Sir William Johnston, Lord Provost of Edinburgh) in a printing and engraving business, forming the well-known cartographical firm of W. and A. K. Johnston [3] [4] with offices based at 4 St Andrew Square in Edinburgh's New Town (demolished 2016) [5] and their printworks based at Edina Works, off Easter Road. The firm used the clan motto of "Ready Aye Ready" as their logo. Early hikes in the West Highlands had led Johnston to despair at the accuracy of maps, and inspired a desire to rectify this. [6]
The rest of Johnston's life was devoted to geography, his later years to its educational aspects especially. His services were recognised by the leading scientific societies of Europe and America.
Following his publication of The National Atlas of Historical, Commercial and Political Geography in 1843, Johnston was appointed Geographer Royal. [7]
In October 1849, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, his proposer being Robert Chambers. [8] In 1862 he was a founding member of the Meteorological Society of Scotland. He was awarded an honorary doctorate (LLD) in 1865.
His Edinburgh address in later years was 16 Grosvenor Crescent in the affluent West End. [9]
He died at Ben Rhydding, Yorkshire, in 1871. [3] He is buried in the north-west section of Grange Cemetery in Edinburgh facing the west path.
Johnston combined cartography with a painstaking and scholarly approach to map production. He went on to establish a reputation for scope and accuracy. Thematic atlases became the hallmark of the company he had founded and W & A K Johnston were appointed engravers to King William IV in 1834. In 1835, he constructed the first English language physical globe of the world incorporating its geology, hydrography and meteorology. [10]
In 1843, Johnston published The National Atlas of Historical, Commercial and Political Geography. [11] Johnston was the first to bring the study of physical geography into competent notice in England. His attention had been called to the subject by Alexander von Humboldt. In 1848, Johnston published Physical Atlas of Natural Phenomena, [12] followed by a second and enlarged edition in 1856. [13] [14] The atlas contained maps and descriptive letterpress to illustrate the geology, hydrography, meteorology, botany, zoology, and ethnology of the globe.[ citation needed ]The Physical Atlas was partly based on Heinrich Berghaus's German language Physikalischer Atlas and reflected the increased interest in the mapping of zoological and biological distributions. 18th century thinkers such as Montesquieu had stressed the importance of geography and climate as determining factors in history, and the concept of natural frontiers. [15] The atlas was a visual representation of Humboldtian science, which became popular in the 19th century and was preoccupied with the measurement of environmental parameters on a global scale. [16] Berghaus and Johnston effectively illustrated the text of Humboldt's Kosmos and both atlases were subsequently plagiarized and abridged for school editions. [17]
Johnston published a Dictionary of Geography in 1850, with many later editions. The Royal Atlas of Modern Geography was first published in 1855 and served as an atlas of military geography to accompany Alison's History of Europe published in 1848. A variety of other atlases and maps for educational or scientific purposes. [3] In 1856, Johnston published the "School Atlas of Astronomy".[ citation needed ]
In 1861, Johnston published the first edition of the Royal Atlas of Modern Geography with 48 maps. By 1914, the atlas had gone through 12 editions and morphed into the Johnston's Handy Royal Atlas of Modern Geography with 61 colour lithographed maps and an index of 84 pages. While the Bartholomew's Citizen's Atlas sold more copies, being half the price, the Royal Altlasbecame the standard library atlas throughout the British Empire. [18]
In 1867, Johnston produced a new edition of his School Atlas of Classical Geography. It contained a series of new maps that reflected the results of the most recent research into the classical antiquity. The Map of the Outer Geography of the Odyssey and two maps of ancient Greece were based on the scholarly work of William Ewart Gladstone, who had also revised the map plates and text of the atlas. [19]
In 1871, Johnston published the Half-Crown Atlas of British History for the price sensitive educational market. It was designed as a connected series of maps for teachers and students and illustrated leading events of history. [20]
He married Margaret Gray in 1837. She was thereafter known as Margaret Keith Johnston.
His eldest son, also named Alexander Keith Johnston (1844–1879), was also the author of various geographical works and papers.
Sir Archibald Geikie was a Scottish geologist and writer.
Augustus Heinrich Petermann was a German cartographer.
Heinrich Karl Wilhelm Berghaus was a German geographer and cartographer who conducted trigonometric surveys in Prussia and taught geodesy at the Bauakademie in Berlin. He taught cartography and produced a pioneering and influential thematic atlas which provided maps of flora, fauna, climate, geology, diseases and a range of other information. He was a friend of Alexander von Humboldt and produced some of the maps used in his publications. A nephew Hermann Berghaus also worked in cartography.
Sir Robert Sibbald was a Scottish physician and antiquary.
John Pringle Nichol FRSE FRAS was a Scottish educator, phrenologist, astronomer and economist who did much to popularise astronomy in a manner that appealed to nineteenth century tastes.
The quantitative revolution (QR) was a paradigm shift that sought to develop a more rigorous and systematic methodology for the discipline of geography. It came as a response to the inadequacy of regional geography to explain general spatial dynamics. The main claim for the quantitative revolution is that it led to a shift from a descriptive (idiographic) geography to an empirical law-making (nomothetic) geography. The quantitative revolution occurred during the 1950s and 1960s and marked a rapid change in the method behind geographical research, from regional geography into a spatial science.
John George Bartholomew was a British cartographer and geographer. As a holder of a royal warrant, he used the title "Cartographer to the King"; for this reason he was sometimes known by the epithet "the Prince of Cartography".
Charles William John Withers, is a British historical geographer and academic. He has been the Geographer Royal for Scotland since 2015, and held the Ogilvie Chair of Geography at the University of Edinburgh from 1994 to 2019.
Geography is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. Geography is an all-encompassing discipline that seeks an understanding of Earth and its human and natural complexities—not merely where objects are, but also how they have changed and come to be. While geography is specific to Earth, many concepts can be applied more broadly to other celestial bodies in the field of planetary science. Geography has been called "a bridge between natural science and social science disciplines."
Roy C Bridges was a noted historian the main focus of whose academic work was the British institutions and personnel which were established in East Africa in the middle years of the nineteenth century. He was Professor of History at the University of Aberdeen where he taught from 1964 to 1997. From 2002 to 2008 he was the President of the Hakluyt Society. He was also a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and the Royal Historical Society.
Karl Julius Heinrich Lange was a German cartographer.
Orr's Circle of the Sciences was a scientific encyclopedia of the 1850s, published in London by William Somerville Orr.
Justus Perthes Publishers was established in 1785 in Gotha, Germany. Justus Perthes was primarily a publisher of geographic and historic atlases and (educational) wall maps. He published Petermann’s Geographische Mitteilungen (1855-2004), after having started with publishing the French Almanach de Gotha (1785-1944). In 2016 the publisher was discontinued.
William Desborough Cooley was an Irish geographer. Discoveries by European explorers gradually showed that a number of his theories about Central Africa, though strongly held, were incorrect. In other controversies his position is now considered to have had some justification. His major contributions are now seen as relating to source criticism of historical records, the understanding of West Africa, and as a perceptive historian of globalisation.
Events from the year 1838 in Scotland.
Marion Isabel Newbigin was a Scottish geographer, biologist and academic author. She was noted for her book Animal Geography, a key work in the field of animal geography/zoogeography, and as editor of the Scottish Geographical Magazine.
George Washington Bacon (1830–1922) was an American mapmaker and publisher who developed a successful business producing maps of London.
Geographer Royal is a Scottish honorific appointment. The holder of the position originally was intended to give geographic and mapping advice to the sovereign. In 1682, King Charles II appointed the first Geographer Royal, Robert Sibbald.
Fonseca, also spelled Fonzeca, Fonsequa, or Fonte Seca, other names San Bernardo, San Bernaldo, Galissonière's Rock, is a phantom island which was said to lie in the Atlantic Ocean at 12°27'N and 54°48'W, east of Barbados and Tobago.
Attribution:
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Artists | |
| People | |
| Other | |
