John Bartholomew (1805-61) was the first of the family name to join a business founded in 1784. The period of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries represented the height of the companies influence. The main influence of growth in the business was John George Bartholomew (1831-93). They were active until the Second World War. Adam Black (1784-1874) was a prominent politician also becoming MP for Edinburgh 1856-65. In 1827 he acquired the rights to the ‘Encyclopaedia Britannica’ which greatly stimulated his business. In 1840 they published ‘Black’s General Atlas of the World’ which went through many editions. ‘This excellent and finely engraved map was the most popular map of Scotland prior to the completion of the 1 inch Ordnance Survey about 1887’ (Moir). The map was also issued as an atlas entitled ‘Black’s New Atlas of Scotland’. The title is on sheet number 6. It is drawn to the scale of four miles to an inch. Moir (1973) no. I p. 234; Worms & Baynton-Williams (2011).