Belgium & Holland Map 1922 Times Atlas Print with City Insets - Brussels, Amsterdam, Antwerp, Rotterdam

This Belgium & Holland sheet was made by the Edinburgh Geographical Institute of John Bartholomew & Son for The Times atlas, published in London in 1922 as the Times Survey Atlas of the World. It is a color map with relief shown by hypsometric tints and sea depths by bathymetric tints, and it also shows shipping routes with distances. Four insets give closer views of the great cities, Brussels at 1:150,000, Amsterdam at 1:150,000, Antwerp at 1:150,000 and Rotterdam at 1:75,000. The sheet measures 57 by 53 centimeters, a large format that suits a wall. The catalog adds that the atlas also appeared under the cover title The Times Atlas & Gazetteer of the World, and that the 1920 edition was the first to rely entirely on Bartholomew's own cartography.

The catalog describes this as the second issue of the 1920 edition, the first to use Bartholomew's maps in place of the earlier ones by Andree. It calls the maps superb, and they began a run of Times Atlas editions that continues today. The atlas holds 112 sheets, and a page of corrections from the 1920 edition is included. The date matters, since in 1922 Europe was still adjusting to the settlement after the First World War, and the busy ports and shipping lines drawn on this map show why Antwerp and Rotterdam counted among the great harbors of the continent.

A collector of twentieth-century atlas cartography, a family with roots in Brussels, Amsterdam or Antwerp, or a lover of port and shipping history will find a handsome gift here. TheMapVault's Wyld map of 1864 shows the same lowlands in the age of the first railways, whereas this Times sheet gives the modern view with its four city insets. Like every print in the collection, it ships unframed and is available in a full range of sizes, from a compact desk piece to a large-format statement print.