John George Bartholomew was the elder son of Scotland's leading cartographer whose publishing company, begun in 1826, continues to the present day. Himself a talented geographer and mapmaker, he trained in Germany as an assistant to cartographer August Peterman before taking over the family firm in 1886. Bartholomew's innovative Handy Reference Atlas, published in 1888, is credited with improving the standards of mapmaking. It was particularly noteworthy because of the use of layers of color to show elevations and relief. There followed additional atlases.