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Tonight

1

Exhibits

2

Web Site

3

Early
Photography

4

Professional
Photographers

5

Photographic
Societies

6

PSS
1856

7

EPS History,
Members

8

EPS Dinners,
Outings, Meetings

9

EPS Premises,
Exhibitions

10

Early
20th Century

11

Mid
20th Century

12

Today

Ethnographic Photography

Postcards in Scotland

 

 

Talk to EPS Digital Imaging Group  -  November 10, 2008

History of Photography

6.

Photographic Society

of Scotland

Photographic Society of Scotland Outing to Craigmillar Castle -1856

Stereo Pair of Photographs  -  PSS Outing 1856

©  Reproduced by courtesy of Edinburgh City Libraries and Information Services

 

Early Success

Within the first year:

-   20 to 30 members were expected to join.

-  118 joined.

-   Prince Albert had become Patron.

-   Meeting Reports  in 'Photographic Notes'.

-   Donations made to the Society's Albums

-  Equipment exhibited.

-   First Annual Photographic Exhibition.

-   The first Annual Print Presentation.

-  Lecture topics in 1856-57 included

Practical

-    Photography …………................................. Sir David Brewster

-    The Calotype Process …............................... William Walker

-    The Waxed Paper process ............................. Thomas Keith

-    Uranium & other Substances......................... Charles Burnett

-    Fading of  Photographs……...........................James Tunny

-    Photographs on Fluorescent Surfaces …...... George Wilson

-    Stereoscopic Photography…......................... James Ross

-   Adhesive Substances for Mounting…............ Collin Sinclair

Technical

  The Forgery of Bank Notes by Photography .. .TB Johnston

-    Photo Lithography………........................... N MacPherson

Travel

-   Photography in the Mountains ....................... Horatio Ross

-   A tour of the Coasts of Spain.......................Cosmo Innes

Tour in France……………............................. Cosmo Innes

 

 

Some Prominent PSS Members

Sir David Brewster

John Cay

Antoine Claudet

James Drummond

DTK Drummond

Cosmo Innes

George Skene Keith

Thomas Keith

George Moir

Henry Peach Robinson

Horatio Ross

George Washington Wilson

Sir David Brewster

 

Sir David Brewster

Calotype by Hill & Adamson

Sir David Brewster  -  a calotype by Hill & Adamson

©  Reproduced by courtesy of Edinburgh City Libraries and Information Services

-  Born in Jedburgh in 1787

-  Attended Edinburgh University from the age of 12

-  Awarded an Arts Degree by Edinburgh University in 1900

-  Became editor of the Edinburgh Magazine, later Scots Magazine, aged 20.

Editor of Encyclopaedia Britannica for 22 years

-  President of Photographic Society of Scotland from 1856

-  President of Royal Society of Edinburgh, 1864

Principal of Edinburgh  University, from age 78 until his death, 9 years later.

 

Sir David Brewster

by Orange

Carte de Visite  -  Sir David Brewster  -  President of PSS

©   National Museum of Photography, Film and Television by courtesy of the Science and Society Picture Library. 

Brewster and Talbot

by Moffat

Carte de Visite  -  Brewster and Talbot

©   National Museum of Photography, Film and Television by courtesy of the Science and Society Picture Library. 

Horatio Ross

 

Horatio Ross

Self portrait, preparing a collodion plate

Horatio Ross  -  Amateur photographer

© Reproduced with permission of Christies Images Limited, London

Born 1801.  Named after his godfather, Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson.

-  He was a wealthy landowner

-  1832-34: MP for Arbroath,

-  Won the first steeplechase on record.

-  Represented Scotland at shooting.

-  He once walked from the Dee to Inverness, without stopping, 97 miles.

-  1856:  Vice President of PSS.

-  1884:  Shot his last stag.

Waiting

Photograph by Mrs Horatio Ross?

Photograph from the family of Horatio Ross  -  Hunting and Shooting in the Scottish Highlands  -  Bridge

© Reproduced with permission of Stephen Beadle

The Scottish Highlands

Photograph possibly by Mrs Horatio Ross?

Photograph from the family of Horatio Ross  - Fishing and Hunting in the Scottish Highlands

© Reproduced with permission of Stephen Beadle

The Scottish Highlands

Photograph by Mrs Horatio Ross?

Photograph from the family of Horatio Ross  -  Hunting and Shooting in the Scottish Highlands  -  Man, boy and dog

© Reproduced with permission of Christies Images Limited, London

The Scottish Highlands

Photograph possibly by Mrs Horatio Ross?

Photograph from the family of Horatio Ross  - Crossing the river in the Scottish Highlands

© Reproduced with permission of Stephen Beadle

PSS

1st Exhibition

 

1st Exhibition  -  Dec 1856

1,050 Prints

  • 77 calotypes by Hill & Adamson.  

  • Photolithographs of Venice by MacPherson of Rome

  • 22 collodion photos of deer stalking by Vice President Horatio Ross

  • Portraits by Claudet of London

  • Portraits by James Valentine of Dundee

  • Portraits by Rodger of St Andrews 

  • Portraits by Moffat and by Tunny of Edinburgh

  • Daguerreotypes by Ross & Thomson of Edinburgh

  • Collodion landscapes by Fenton, Photographic Society, London

  • Landscapes by George Washington Wilson, Aberdeen

The National LIbrary of Scotland has a catalogue of this exhibition.

8,000 Visitors

The exhibition attracted 8,000 visitors, and made a profit of £23 9s 11½d, thought the Council declared profit was not their objective. 

Their main objects in instituting exhibitions were:

-  to aid in increasing the public taste for Art.

-  to afford the Members an opportunity of contrasting their own works with those of their fellow Members, and of photographers at a distance.

Press Comment

"Another Exhibition has opened to delight our pleasure-loving Auld Reekieites who are noted as dillettántí and Fine-Art rhapsodists.

Photography already appears scarcely less marvellous than the electric telegraph" 

[Caledonian Mercury  22 December 1856]

"This is a most extraordinary exhibition; and we suspect that very few persons, if any, who have not visited it can have the most remote idea of the immense progress which Photography (or Sun Painting, as some term it) has made during the last few years." 

 [The Edinburgh Evening Reporter & Scottish Record  -  Dec 31, 1856]

Poem 1

A poem appeared in The Courant describing the society’s exhibition at 60 Hanover Street ended:

 Old Sol had scarcely spoken thus, when forth I went straightway

   To his Great Exhibition-Room, my shilling there to pay;

   And scarcely had I passed the door, and laid my money down

   When I exclaimed  “A shilling’s worth!  Why this is worth a crown.

   He really is a painter!  His own account is true.

   I only wish we saw him here far oft’ner than we do.”

     [The Courant  22 January 1857]

Poem 2

A few days later, The Daily Scotsman, on 31 Jan 1857, told its readers of the marvels to be seen at the Exhibition.  It published a poem, 'Temple of the Sun'.  Here is an extract:

“ But even such a favoured street acquires a new renown,

   And gives a brighter lustre to that corner of the town.

   When day by day both grave and gay are thither seen to run

   With eager anxious haste to seek the Temple of the Sun.”

     [The Daily Scotsman:  31 January 1857]

 

Some Prominent Exhibitors

Antoine Claudet [London]

Roger Fenton [London]

Hill & Adamson [Edinburgh]

Robert MacPherson [Rome]

John Moffat [Edinburgh]

John Pouncy [Dorchester]

Horatio Ross [Scotland]

Henry Peach Robinson [Leamington]

Ross & Thomson [Edinburgh]

George Washington Wilson [Aberdeen]

 

Photos for Sale

Prints for Sale

Many of those who exhibited in PSS Exhibitions also sold their photographs.

-   Henry Peach Robinson sold 57 copies of his prints at the 1857 + 1858
 Exhibitions, at prices varying from 3 shillings to 15 shillings each.

-   George Washington Wilson sold 40 small views in 1860, at 10d each.

 

'Fading Away'

Copies on sale at 15s 0d each in 3rd PSS Annual Exhibition

Fading Away  -  Henry Peach Robinson

©  The Royal Photographic Society, Bath, England.  web site http://www.rps.org.

Here They Come

Winner of Silver Medal in 4th PSS Annual Exhibition

  Here They Come  -  Henry Peach Robinson

©  Reproduced by courtesy of Margaret Halket, West Sussex

'Somebody's Coming'

Winner of Silver Medal in 8th PSS Annual Exhibition

Photograph by HP Robinson - Winner of a Silver Medal in the Photographic Society of Scotland's 8th Annual Exhibition

©  Reproduced by courtesy of Edinburgh Photographic Society

Letter from H P Robinson.  The printing on this letter  includes many of his PSS Medals

Letter from H P Robinson to Edinburgh Photographic Society, thanking EPS for the Medal awarded to him at the 1876 Exhibition.

©  Reproduced by courtesy of Edinburgh Photographic Society

PSS Medals

Front of the Medal

Photographic Society of Scotland Medal awarded to John MacNair, 1860
© Chris Honeywell, Oxford, England

Front of the Medal

Photographic Society of Scotland Medal awarded to John MacNair, 1860
© Chris Honeywell, Oxford, England

Legend around the Edge of the Medal

Photographic Society of Scotland Medal awarded to John MacNair, 1860
© Chris Honeywell, Oxford, England

   Photographic Society of Scotland Medal awarded to John MacNair, 1860
© Chris Honeywell, Oxford, England

   Photographic Society of Scotland Medal awarded to John MacNair, 1860
© Chris Honeywell, Oxford, England

   Photographic Society of Scotland Medal awarded to John MacNair, 1860
© Chris Honeywell, Oxford, England

   Photographic Society of Scotland Medal awarded to John MacNair, 1860
© Chris Honeywell, Oxford, England

   Photographic Society of Scotland Medal awarded to John MacNair, 1860
© Chris Honeywell, Oxford, England

   Photographic Society of Scotland Medal awarded to John MacNair, 1860
© Chris Honeywell, Oxford, England

 

Exhibitors' Requests

Many exhibitors gave precise instructions.

Maxwell Lyte, wrote several letters to PSS about 12 views of the Pyrenees and Spain that he submitted to the 1859 exhibition.

Requests

Maxwell Lyte wrote:

Please handle these pictures carefully, and take care not to bend the board or crease it by handling it roughly - and take care to touch with clean hands."

-  It is particularly requested that they may not be injured in the custom house."

-  If there is no regulation pattern of frame to be used throughout the Exhibition, let the pictures be placed in plain gold-beaded frames of narrow beading."

-  Take care that the pictures touch the glass.  I like glass as free as possible from flaws."

-  Paste up the back board with paper all round, so as to keep out the dust.

-  Be careful of thumb marks and do not handle the board roughly or crease it by taking up the pictures in one hand.

Result

However, in its report of the exhibition, 'The Daily Scotsman' described one of Maxwell Lyte's photographs as an excellent specimen.  It added:

-  Other specimens of the same artist are equally good; and we are happy to add that the injury these beautiful views sustained in their transmission to this country, by a nail being driven through them has been skilfully repaired.

PSS

2nd Exhibition

 

Controversy at 2nd PSS Exhibition

Two Ways of Life

O G Rejlander

Two Ways of Life  -  Oscar Gustav Rejlander

©  The Royal Photographic Society, Bath, England.  web site http://www.rps.org.

-  O G Rejlander's photograph, promoting photography as Fine Art.

-  Photograph printed from from 32 negatives.

-  Highly praised when exhibited in Manchester.

-  PSS Hanging Committee declined it because of its semi-nude female figures.

-  Daily Express was vexed with the decision and wrote:

“OG Rejlander: -  ‘Two Ways of Life’ was exhibited in the Art Treasures Exhibition in Manchester.  The Prince Consort has three copies of it.  Sir David Brewster, the President has one copy.  It will scarcely be credited that the amateur ‘hanging committee’ of PSS rejected it because there were half-draped female figures in it."

"Call at Mr Wood’s, 88 Princes Street, where the rejected photograph may be seen.”

-  A compromise may have been reached.  I have read a report that the picture was displayed with one half hidden behind a draped cloth, though I'm not sure where it was on display in this way.

-  Professional photographers tried for more representation on Hanging C'tee.

-  They failed.

-  They began to meet informally.

-  They formed Edinburgh Photographic Society in 1861.

 

End of Page 6

 

 

 

 

 

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