The firm of W. & A.K. Johnston was to become one of the major publishing houses of the 19th century. Co-founders, brothers William and Alexander Keith Johnston, started out as apprentices to the Scottish globe maker and publisher James Kirkwood in his Edinburgh workshop. Having learned their trade there, they set up their own business, also in the city.
The Johnstons acquired the established Scottish printing publishing house of William Lizars, and began, first printing by contract, and slowly expanding their repertoire into not only maps, but also atlases, gazetteers, guide books, globes and much more. In amongst the brothers' many achievements, and one of their major claims, was that of the first physical globe, which won them a number of awards at the Great Exhibition of 1851. The globe-making element of the business continued well into the 20th century on both sides of the Atlantic.
Some of the Johnston's exceptional map collections include the National Atlas of General Geography, first struck in 1843, The Handy Royal Atlas of Modern Geography published 1874, various scientific and statistical atlases, such as Johnston’s School Astronomical Atlas (1877), The Statistical Atlas of England and Wales (1882) and The Royal Atlas of Modern Geography. The business continued to function under the Johnston name until the 1960s.
Following his publication of The National Atlas in 1843, Alexander Johnston was appointed Geographer Royal.
Alexander combined cartography with a painstaking and scholarly approach to map production. He went on to establish a reputation for scope and accuracy and was the first cartographer to bring the study of physical geography into competent notice in England.
