THE FIRST EDITION OF THE FIRST BRITISH ATLAS ON PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. The successful firm of W. & A. K. Johnston was founded by Sir William Johnston (1802-88) and was based in Edinburgh from 1825. The following year he was joined by his brother Alexander Keith Johnston (1804-74). The ‘Physical Atlas’ offered here is the ‘first British atlas to give a synoptic view of physical geography’ (Tooley). It is arranged in four distinct sections: Meteorology including 5 maps, Hydrology with 6 maps, Geology with 10 maps and Phytology and Zoology with 9 maps. Each section is accompanied by descriptive text.

In 1842 Johnston visited Europe and met Doctor Heinrich Carl Wilhelm Berghaus (1797-1884) who was an engineer and geographer from Cleve, now in Germany. After his studies Berghaus worked in the Prussian Land Survey Office and then became a teacher of geodesy and a pioneer in the field of scientific and thematic cartography. He worked closely with the publisher Justus Perthes, who published the first edition of the ‘Physikalischer Atlas’ in 1836. As the title to the ‘Physical Atlas’ states this work is based on Berghaus’ ‘Physikalischer Atlas’. Dreyer-Eimbcke (1997); Shirley (2000) ‘Berghaus and Johnston: Pioneers of the Thematic Atlas’, in ‘IMCoS Journal’ no. 83 pp. 31-5; Smith, D. (2000); Smith, D. (2001); Worms & Baynton-Williams (2011).