In the early 1880s Alfred Barnard, secretary of Harper’s Weekly Gazette (the magazine that morphed into today’s Harpers Wine & Spirit), decided to visit all distilleries in Scotland, England and Ireland.
His altruistic aim was to provide readers with the history and descriptions of the whisky-making process. Often accompanied by friends, from 1885-87 Barnard attended 162 working distilleries (129 in Scotland, 29 in Ireland and four in England) and reported what he found in The Whisky Distilleries of the United Kingdom.
Published by Joseph Causton and Sons in 1887, the text, accompanied by over 200 etchings by Walker & Boutall, includes often colourful descriptions of whisky makers now well known to connoisseurs today, as well as other names whose fame has faded since the end of the 19th century.