Stanford's and Reynolds's Geological Atlases

Abstract:

Geological atlases of Britain were published for over a century from 1860 to 1964. The Geological Atlas of Great Britain, published by James Reynolds in 1860 and 1889 responded to a public interested in geology and able to travel via the expanding railway network. In Reynolds's editions the maps were the focus and the text, relatively slight. The maps were hand-coloured and clear. Nominally British, the maps comprised English counties - singly and in pairs or small groups - with just two maps for Wales and a folded map of Scotland, almost as addenda. This emphasis reflected the market demographics and possibly the fact that the geology was easier to observe and differentiate over most of England.

Edward Stanford took over Reynolds's map plates. He retained updated the railway lines and introduced colour printing, but otherwise kept the map design and Reynolds's basic organisation. Stanford's first edition in 1904 had a new and expanded text including the geology encountered along main railway routes and added fossil plates in 1904. Stanford's second edition of 1907, the Geological Atlas of Great Britain and Ireland, added north and south maps of Ireland with text. The third, 1914, added the Channel Islands. There was a Photographic Supplement to Stanford's Geological Atlas of Great Britain and Ireland in 1913.

Reynolds's and Stanford's atlas editions were popular and much used. They were not durable and mostly survive as broken volumes and individual maps. The maps remain very popular, being small, affordable and colourful and, for the English, focused on counties.

A 1964 edition, published with reduced Geological Survey maps without colour, was not a success. Despite being more up to date and having integrated maps and descriptions, it was visually dull and the maps were difficult to read without colour.

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