page_title: August Heinrich Petermann
section_title: Scotland
hierarchical_section_title: August Heinrich Petermann / British experience / Scotland
caption_attribution_description: English: Portion of A. Fullarton map "Abessinia and the Adjacent Countries" from the atlas "Royal Illustrated Atlas of Modern Geography" published in Edinburgh 1864-1872
context_page_description: Augustus Heinrich Petermann was a German cartographer.
context_section_description: August Petermann gained commercial insight during his years in the cartography business in Edinburgh and London from 1845 to 1854. Normally he would have been obliged to work in Berghaus' school till 1849, as it was laid down in the contracts the students had to sign. This stated that they had to work for five years after they finished their studies to pay for their tuition.
  In 1842 Alexander Keith Johnston (1804–1871) visited Gotha to discuss several projects with Perthes. These negotiation first resulted in the publication of the National Atlas of General Geography, which contained 4 maps by Berghaus. Though Berghaus deemed the commercial and scientific climate in England not ready for scientific maps Johnston persisted in wanting to publish a translation of the Physikalischer Atlas, on which he requested aid from Berghaus. With a letter of recommendation by von Humboldt in October 1844 Heinrich 'Henry' Lange joined Johnston in Edinburgh for this purpose. Petermann stayed behind in Gotha and became teacher in the 2nd course of Berghaus' school. In April 1845 he followed Lange, who received him in his house in Edinburgh and acquainted him with the friends he had made. Together they made a tour through the Grampians, applying what they had learned by using barometers for height measurements and taking geological and botanical samples. Meanwhile, they also worked on the Johnston's Physical atlas (Physical geography, illustrating in a series of original designs, the elementary facts of geology, hydrology, meteorology and natural history etc.) and several other cartographic publications.
  During his time in Edinburgh he may have come into contact with the publisher G.H. Swanston, for whom he constructed several maps for The Royal Illustrated Atlas, Of Modern Geography, 1st edition published in 27 parts 1854–62. and republished probably in 1872. He also may have met in Edinburgh with John Bartholomew Jr. (1831–1893), who created many maps in the same atlas. John Bartholomew became Petermann's student in Gotha from 1855 till he was recalled to his father's firm in 1856. The German school of cartography was pre-eminent, and four generations of Bartholomews widened their knowledge by studying with the German masters. John George's son Ian studied in Leipzig (1907–08) with Oswald Winkel. His grandson John Christopher carried on the tradition, studying with Eduard Imhof, the great Swiss cartographer, in Berne and Zurich in 1960, and his son John Eric followed in 1977 with Imhof's pupil, Ernst Spiess.
  "Bartholomew is best known for the development of colour contouring (or hypsometric tints), the system of representing altitudes on a graduated colour scale, with areas of high altitude in shades of brown and areas of low altitude in shades of green. He first showcased his colour contouring system at the Paris Exhibition of 1878; although it initially met with skepticism, it went on to become standard cartographical practice". However, he might have picked up this idea during his time in Gotha as the colour scheme was first introduced by Emil von Sydow (1812–1873) in 1838 when he developed a color methodology for landscape features using hachures, where green was depicted for lowlands and brown used for highlands. The white for the higher reaches might later have been used by Hermann Haack (1872–1966) for his Perthes' wall maps.
  Several maps have been co-constructions of Petermann and Bartholomew.
caption: Portion of Petermann's map of Abessinia
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