George Philip & Son
| George Philip | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born | 1800 Huntly, Aberdeenshire |
| Died |
3 October 1882 Bickley, Kent |
| Occupation | Cartographer and map publisher |
| Years active | 1834–1882 |
George Philip (1800–1882) was a cartographer, map publisher and founder of the publishing house George Philip & Son Ltd.
George Philip was born in Huntly, Aberdeenshire to a staunchly Calvinist family. In 1819 George traveled to Liverpool where his brother Robert, who was a nonconformist minister, lived. Here George made his home and in 1819 George became assistant to the Liverpool bookseller, William Grapel. In 1834, Philip set up his own business as a bookseller and stationer in Paradise Street, Liverpool. He rapidly expanded the business by producing books, particularly educational works and maps. Within his first year of trading to keep up with demand he had to move his business into larger premises at the Atlas Buildings in South Castle Street. George and his wife Jane had a daughter Jane Jr. (born 1827) and one son, George Jr. (1823–1902). In 1848, George Jr. was admitted as a partner into the family publishing business now called George Philip & Son Ltd.
During the early 1840s George Philip opened and ran a bookseller's and stationer's shop in South Castle Street, Liverpool, and it was during this period he laid the foundations for building and expanding his publishing empire from which he would eventually amass a substantial fortune. His son George Jr., along with his nephew Thomas Dash Philip (1829-1913), and Philip's daughter Jane Jr. (who served behind the counter), assisted him in the shop at South Castle Street. Both George Jr. and Thomas would, in time, head the family-run business. In 1851 the England Census shows George Philip senior and his family resided in a grand town house at 21 Great George Square, Westside, situated in Liverpool's prestigious and affluent Georgian quarter.
George's nephew Thomas Dash Philip is also living with the family. The Philip's also employ two live-in servants to assist George's wife Jane with the day-to-day running of the household. In 1856, George Philip & Son Ltd. opened a house at 32 Fleet Street, London, where they sold their geographical and educational publications. They would later also occupy the premises next door at numbers 31 and 30 Fleet Street. In 1859, the company took over the extensive pile known as Caxton Buildings in South John Street, Liverpool, which became the company's headquarters in the city. With the establishment of their printing works in Caxton Buildings, new power-driven machinery gave the company the capacity to increase production.
Philip used cartographers such as John Bartholomew the elder, August Petermann, and William Hughes to produce maps on copper plates. Philip then had these printed and hand-coloured by his women tinters. By the time he produced his county maps of 1862 he was using machine coloured maps produced on power-driven lithographic presses. 'His maps ranged from the expensive Imperial Library Atlas (1864) to an atlas costing as little as 3d. and, although the bulk of his production was for the commercial, and particularly the educational market, he also produced important scientific maps, notably of North America, especially the Arctic and Pacific Northwest, and of the West Indies.' The firm supplied atlases, geographical and history books, school textbooks, and an array of educational books and equipment. The company also produced textbooks for overseas countries, starting with an atlas for Australian schools in 1865 and for New Zealand in 1869. The demand from board schools, established after 1870, enabled further expansion in the market for general textbooks, school stationery, atlases and wall maps, etc. Philip also employed many noted writers including the geographer and historian John Francon Williams who wrote, compiled and edited many books for the company from 1881 over a 20-year period.
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