John Bartholomew Senior (1805-April 9th, 1861), began working as an independent map maker, founding John Bartholomew and Sons in around 1826. In 1888, the firm was renamed The Edinburgh Geographical Institute. Finally, in 1989, the company merged with the Glasgow publisher Collins, as part of the multinational HarperCollins Publishers. The name of Bartholomew survives as the trade name of Harper Collins' Reference department's cartographic databases.