The Draughtsmen's Room

Draughting was the first stage in the production of a Bartholomew map. There were many elements to the draughtsman’s role, making it one of the most specialist positions in the firm.

Draughtsmen had to be skilled at both drawing and lettering and as such a typical apprenticeship lasted seven years. However, once qualified, a journeyman draughtsman was one of the most highly skilled members of Bartholomew's staff.

More about draughtsmen

  • Thumbnail: Photo of the draughtsmen's room at Duncan Street
  • Thumbnail: Photo of man working on a map and using magnifying glass
  • Thumbnail: Photo of man looking at map through magnifying glass
  • Thumbnail: Early photo of a draughtman's office in 1895
  • Thumbnail: Photo of draughtman with young apprentice
  • Thumbnail: Detail from Loch Eil map
  • Thumbnail: Newspaper article with London photos
  • Thumbnail: Cyclist's Touring Club logo
  • Detail from Northumberland map
  • Thumbnail: Piper detail from comic map
  • Thumbnail: Coloured drawing of 1920s car and woman in countryside
  • Detail from Northumberland map
  • Thumbnail: ledger pages with handwritten details
  • Thumbnail: Photo of a set of precision tools for draughtmen
  • Thumbnail: Audio icon
Photo of the draughtsmen's room at Duncan Street

Duncan Street drawing office

This photo shows the drawing office at Duncan Street in the 1960s. This is where the draughtsmen were based.

The room is dominated by large windows and spacious desks. The space was necessary, allowing the draughtsmen to spread out the wide variety of reference material needed for their work.

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Photo of man working on a map and using magnifying glass

Draughtsman James Lewis

James Lewis was one of Bartholomew's draughtsmen. James worked at Bartholomew for 51 years, starting in 1915.

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Photo of man looking at map through magnifying glass

Draughtsman Alex Williamson

Alex Williamson was a draughtsman at Bartholomew. He worked for the firm for 50 years, starting in 1912.

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Early photo of a draughtman's office in 1895

Park Road drawing office

A photograph of the Park Road drawing office as it looked in 1895. It was taken on apprentice James Bain’s camera — he can be seen fifth from the left. The door at the far end of the room led to the office of Friedrich Bosse, who was the head draughtsman.

Duncan Street offered the draughtsmen much more space than Park Road.

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Photo of draughtman with young apprentice

Apprentice training

In this photo, draughtsman Willie Hall is training apprentice draughtsman David Anderson.

More about apprentice training

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Map of Loch Eil with ink and pencil markings

Ordnance Survey maps as reference material

Ordnance Survey 'one-inch to the mile' map — Sheet 62 — Loch Eil (2nd edition).

Ordnance Survey maps were one of the draughtsman's key sources of information. This map is heavily marked in red and blue ink and pencil-line grids. Its poor state of repair implies that it was well used.

Ordnance Survey objected to mapmakers using their maps, but Bartholomew never plagiarised them. Indeed, Bartholomew's maps could be more up-to-date than OS ones.

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Newspaper article with London photos

News cuttings as reference material

Newspapers were an important source of information to Bartholomew's draughtsmen.

Bartholomew received most major newspapers and kept boxes full of cuttings. They all have information that Bartholomew could use to update their maps. This might be a new canal, the re-drawing of an international border or, in this case, the rebuilding of London after the Blitz.

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A typed letter

The Cyclist's Touring Club

The Cyclist's Touring Club (CTC) was founded in 1878 and by the end of the 1890s boasted membership figures of close to 60,500.

In 1898, John George Bartholomew wrote to the CTC's Secretary with a proposal. Bartholomew would supply the CTC with discounted half-inch maps, but in return he requested that CTC members supplied the firm with up-to-date information. The draughtsmen would use this information to update maps. Some of this information came marked on maps. However, the majority of it came via letters.

Read Cyclist's Touring Club letters

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Map of Northumberland with CTC logo at the bottom

A map revised by the Cyclist's Touring Club

Sheet 1 of Bartholomew's 'half inch to mile' map of England and Wales — Northumberland, north, 1912.

This half-inch map is a good example of Bartholomew's relationship with the Cyclist's Touring Club (CTC). The CTC member responsible for this area has marked the map with the conditions of roads he experienced while out and about on his bike.

The accuracy of this information gave Bartholomew the advantage over their competitors. As a result, Bartholomew dominated the market for touring maps like these.

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Map of Scotland made up of comic images of piper and woman

Philp's 'Comic map of Scotland'

Bartholomew designed and printed this map as an advertisement for Edinburgh-based hotelier Andrew Philp in 1882.

Here we can compare the hand-drawn 'proof' version of the map against the printed version.

More about the comic map

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Coloured drawing of 1920s car and woman in countryside

Hand-drawn map covers

Occasionally Bartholomew sought the assistance of external draughtsmen.

John Swain & Son, a Glasgow firm, were among those who worked with the Edinburgh-based mapmakers in the 1920s.

More on hand-drawn map covers

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Coloured map of Glen Roy

An unusual, hand-coloured map

Ordnance Survey 'one-Inch to the mile' map — Sheet 63 — Glen Roy (3rd edition), 1908.

This is an Ordnance Survey map that has been hand-coloured in Bartholomew’s contour-layer style. We are not sure why. We believe Bartholomew’s draughtsmen produced this as a sample.

Ordnance Survey were updating their one-inch series, which was published in the 1920s and called the 'Popular edition'. The maps in this series were coloured, although in the end Ordnance Survey used a totally different system.

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ledger pages with handwritten details

Drawing workbooks

An example of a drawing work book from the 1890s. It documents the work Bartholomew did on a guide book of France for the publisher Charles Black.

The columns reveal the cost of producing these maps, as opposed to the time they took.

Bartholomew kept similar records to these while at Duncan Street

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Photo of a boxed set of draughtsmans tools

Draughting tools

A selection of the draughting tools that belonged to David Anderson, one of Bartholomew's draughtsmen.

This case includes tools known as dividers and spring bows. They were primarily used to draw circles and parallel lines. Ink was applied to the tips of the tools, which required a steady hand to use.

More on draughting tools

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Audio icon and photo of Willie Hall

Motorways on maps

Draughtsman Willie Hall describes how Bartholomew kept roads on their half inch to the mile series of maps up-to-date.

Go to audio player and transcript

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