Wyld

British geographer and businessman James Wyld was born in England in 1812 to James Wyld the Elder, who passed along the family business, J. Wyld & Son, in 1836 at the time of his death.  It was from his father that Wyld not only learned about mapmaking, but also about business, and both would influence his storied career.

 J. Wyld & Son produced popular, high quality maps of various regions of the world, capitalizing on shifting geography by producing historical maps following major incidents including the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815.  The company had already earned a sterling reputation by the time James Wyld inherited the business from his father, and his love of cartography and his shrewd business sense led to further success.

 His approach to business was famously profiled in the satire publication 'Punch', which noted that should a new region be discovered, Wyld would have a map made "as soon as it is discovered, if not before".  This may have had something to do with an incident in which he published railway maps for the planned London rail network prior to its completion.  Subsequently, several stations listed on his maps were never constructed.  Such vintage maps are likely worth a pretty penny to collectors today.

 Despite several blunders, Wyld also had many notable successes in his career.  At the age of 18 he joined the Royal Cartographical Society and he was elected as a member of the Royal Geographical Society in 1839.  He was later appointed as Geographer to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, an honor he shared with his late father.  Of course, he is best known not for the plethora of historical maps to his name, but for Wyld's Great Globe, an exhibit that opened in 1851, coinciding with the Great Exhibition.

 After unsuccessfully attempting to have his globe included in the Great Exhibition at Hyde Park, Wyld negotiated for space to exhibit his masterpiece in the gardens at Leicester Square, where it would remain for 10 years.  The globe itself, measuring an impressive 60 feet, 4 inches, was a marvel that attracted audiences in numbers second only to the Great Exhibition in the year it debuted.  The globe featured a concave cutout of the world, complete with topography to scale, and featured five stories of platforms with staircases that allowed visitors to view the world.  Unfortunately, the globe was subsequently dismantled and destroyed. 

 During the course of his life Wyld would also hold political office and he continued to make maps and run a successful business until his death in 1887.  Today, his antique maps are highly collectible, but his greatest achievement, Wyld's Great Globe, lives only in history.