Johnston, Alexander Keith, 1804–71, Scottish cartographer and geographer royal of Scotland. He issued many notable atlases, maps, and gazetteers, including The National Atlas of Historical, Commercial, and Political Geography (1843), The Physical Atlas of Natural Phenomena (1848), The Dictionary of Geography (1850; known as Johnston's Gazetteer), and The Royal Atlas of Modern Geography (1861). A son, Alexander Keith Johnston, 1844–79, carried on the work of the map-publishing house founded by his father. He assisted (1873–75) in a survey of Paraguay and died in Africa while leading an expedition of the Royal Geographical Society to Lake Nyasa.
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