Alexander Keith Johnston (1804–1871)

Alexander Keith Johnston FRSE FRGS FGS FEGS LLD (died 9 July 1871) was a Scottish geographer and cartographer.

[2] In 1826, he joined his brother William (who would become Sir William Johnston, Lord Provost of Edinburgh) in a printing and engraving business, forming the well-known cartographical firm of W. and A. K. Johnston[3][4] with offices based at 4 St Andrew Square in Edinburgh's New Town (demolished 2016)[5] and their printworks based at Edina Works, off Easter Road.

Early hikes in the West Highlands had led Johnston to despair at the accuracy of maps, and inspired a desire to rectify this.

Following his publication of The National Atlas of Historical, Commercial and Political Geography in 1843, Johnston was appointed Geographer Royal.

Thematic atlases became the hallmark of the company he had founded and W & A K Johnston were appointed engravers to King William IV in 1834.

[13][14] The atlas contained maps and descriptive letterpress to illustrate the geology, hydrography, meteorology, botany, zoology, and ethnology of the globe.

18th century thinkers such as Montesquieu had stressed the importance of geography and climate as determining factors in history, and the concept of natural frontiers.

[15] The atlas was a visual representation of Humboldtian science, which became popular in the 19th century and was preoccupied with the measurement of environmental parameters on a global scale.

[16] Berghaus and Johnston effectively illustrated the text of Humboldt's Kosmos and both atlases were subsequently plagiarized and abridged for school editions.