Bethel W. Whitson Organization

The Bethel W. Whitson Organization was a blueprinting, surveying, cartographic and engineering company founded in 1910 as the Electric Blue Printing Company. It was was located on the 6th floor of the Woodward Building in downtown Birmingham. In addition to serving the needs of architects, municipalities and developers in the booming city, the company also benefitted from legislation requiring mine operators to keep accurate maps of underground works, and to file copies with courts of probate in the counties where they operated.

Draftsman and surveyor Bethel Whitson came to Birmingham to work at the Electric Blue Printing Company, and later purchased the business from its founders. He reincorporated it in 1925 with Percival Dryer and Julian Moltley.

In 1927 the company offered surveying, custom maps, and drafting and patent drawing services in addition to reproductions, made on a blueprint machine that "prints, washes, dries and irons...in one continuous operation." The firm offered pick-up and delivery anywhere in the city, and promised a one-day turnaround on mail orders.

By the end of the decade, Whitson was operating the business under his own name with specialties in surveying and engineering services. Whitson died in 1970 and the company officially dissolved in 1988