For those who may wish to derive as much pleasure as I do from dating Bartholomew's maps, I can certainly vouch for the usefulness of Ken Winch's guide. This can be found in a number of places but also via the Resources section of the Bartholomew Archive website (http://digital.nls.uk/bartholomew/resources.html)
The on-going cataloguing of the firm's printing record has highlighted a few minor errors (for example, the relationship with the Cyclist's Touring Club was begun much earlier than this guide suggests, but to be fair to Ken he did circa his dating) but it is nevertheless an extremely useful guide.
It might be worth mentioning that the alpha-numeric code outlined in this guide was specific to Bartholomew's half-inch mapping. As Ken mentions, for other publications (from 1920) they would insert a three or four digit code somewhere in the map marginalia. This code is the unique job order number of the item and using the Business Records, part of the Bartholomew Archive here in the National Library of Scotland, it is usually possible to pinpoint the exact day that an individual item was printed.
Karla Baker
Bartholomew Archive Curator
-----Original Message-----
From: A forum for issues related to map & spatial data librarianship [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of [log in to unmask]
Sent: 14 September 2012 16:08
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Fw: Dating a Geographer's AZ Street Atlas
Is Ken's dating of Bartholomew maps on the MCG toolbox on the BCS website. Sorry cannot check am away from my computer Ann Suthdrl
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Sent from my Nokia phone
------Original message------
From: andrew cook <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Friday, September 14, 2012 12:34:39 PM GMT+0100
Subject: Fw: Dating a Geographer's AZ Street Atlas
Mick
Didn't Bartholomews (pre-HarperCollins) also use date codes in place of publication dates to allow stock to be kept saleable longer at retail outlets? I think Ken Winch wrote it up a few years ago, mentioning that the practice had ceased at the end of the Second World War.
Andrew
Andrew S Cook
Dalrymple Research Institute
for the Study of the History of Lowland Scots Hydrography
4 West Road
Newport-on-Tay
Fife DD6 8HG
01382 543377
________________________________
From: Mick Ashworth <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Thursday, 13 September 2012, 15:22
Subject: Re: Dating a Geographer's AZ Street Atlas
I don’t have the answer but another question... Why on earth would they have gone to these lengths to hide the date of production of a commercial, freely available product in the first place? Sounds like a cartographic job creation scheme to me. Or it just an example of protecting the mysterious aura of maps and all things cartographic?
Mick Ashworth
Ashworth Maps and Interpretation Ltd
68 St Mary's Road
Bishopbriggs
Glasgow
G64 2EF
Tel: 0141 561 9314
Mob: 07717 788472
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
www.ashworthmaps.co.uk
Consultant Editor to The Times Atlas of the World
Former President of The British Cartographic Society
On 12/09/2012 13:25, "Da Cruz, Tinho" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
I recently wished to date Geographer's A–Z Street Atlas of Liverpool on which I found the code DDB. On Wikipedia I found the following interpretation. Can anyone vouch for its veracity?
>“On all their maps, there is a 3 or 4 letter code in one of the corners, often the one containing the key. These letters represent numbers, which are the cartographic date, in the form (M)MYY. There is at least one scheme in use, but possibly also a second.
>
>One scheme is JIHGFEDCBA, for the numbers 1 through 9 and 0, so that HFD would be 357, or March 1957. This seems to be used on all of their maps not in book form (it may be used in the book form ones, but that has not been confirmed).”
>
>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geographer%27s_A%E2%80%93Z_Street_Atlas#Dating_old_maps
>
>The date that it gives(July 1979) seems reasonable for the map in question.
>
>Best wishes
>Tinho
>Ps I naively included the word ‘dating’ in my original google search, and was offered sites that were not at all what I wished for!
>.............................
>Antonio da Cruz (Tinho) [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]" target="_blank">http:[log in to unmask]>
>Map Curator,
>Department of Geography, School of Environmental Sciences,
>Roxby Building, University of Liverpool, LIVERPOOL L69 7ZT
>Telephone: 0151 794 2844
>Fax: 0151 794 2866
>Please note: I do not work on Thursdays.
>
>
>
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