James Wyld

James Wyld (1812–1887) was a British geographer and map dealer based in London who had taken over his father’s business at Charing Cross in London.

In his own day, Wyld was best known for his so-called Great Globe, which was a popular attraction that dominated Leicester Square for more than a decade between 1851 and 1862. The enormous globe allowed people to climb an interior staircase and study a scaled topographic model of the Earth on the concave interior.

Above all, however, Wyld was a mapmaker who made his living compiling and selling maps throughout the western world. He also served as a Member of Parliament for Bodmin. In 1838, James Wyld married Anne Hester and their son, James John Cooper Wyld, would later take over the business and become a prolific mapmaker in his own right.