Antique World Map 1848 — Johnston, Botanical Geography

An old world map of plant geography, Edinburgh, 1848

This colored world map is about plants. It is Outlines of Botanical Geography, a sheet from The Physical Atlas of Alexander Keith Johnston (1804–1871), which the National Library of Scotland records under the title ending “based on the Physikalischer Atlas of Professor H. Berghaus”. The Library’s record gives this copy the imprint “Edinburgh : William Blackwood & Sons, 1848”: a colored map of 65 × 55 cm on a sheet of 71 × 60 cm.

In the preface to the finished volume, dated April 1848, Johnston thanked Alexander von Humboldt, “at whose suggestion the Work was undertaken”, and explained that he had made copyright arrangements with Berghaus: of the thirty maps, fifteen were designed by Berghaus. The work first came out in parts – the 1845 prospectus promised three maps to a part, at one guinea, every other month – before William Blackwood & Sons issued it as a volume in 1848.

Johnston had gone into partnership as an engraver with his brother William in 1826, and in 1840 he was appointed geographer at Edinburgh in ordinary to the Queen; the Dictionary of National Biography lists further editions of the atlas in 1850 and 1856. Wellcome Collection publishes another copy of this sheet, catalogued with a “specimen number” of the atlas issued in Edinburgh in 1845.

The National Library of Scotland keeps the atlas under the shelfmark EMW.X.249; your file is made from its scan.

Your file

How to print

• At 300 dpi the map prints to 67 cm. Pick the archive whose proportions match your frame; ask for matte fine-art paper in sRGB with auto-enhancement off.
• Where to print it: print shops near you and checked prices at online labs.

Source and rights

The file is made from the National Library of Scotland’s scan, published under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence: reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland. The record describes the map as colored but names neither the printing technique nor the method of coloring. There is no TIFF master in the package. Catalogue record: National Library of Scotland →