100 years of photography secured for the nation
An exceptional collection of historic photographs that captures a century of life in Scotland is to be shared with the public following a special collaboration between the National Library of Scotland and the National Galleries of Scotland.
More than 14,000 images – dating from the earliest days of photography in the 1840s through to the 1940s – have been jointly acquired with support from the Scottish Government, the Heritage Lottery Fund and Art Fund.
The collection covers an expansive range of subjects – including family portraits, working life, street scenes, sporting pursuits, shops, trams, tenements, mountains and monuments. Until now, it was one of the last great collections of Scottish photography still in private hands.
The collection was put together by photography enthusiast Murray MacKinnon, who established a chain of film-processing stores in the 1980s.
The collection contains an exquisite view of Loch Katrine by William Henry Fox Talbot, who travelled to Scotland in the autumn of 1844.
Talbot was the inventor of the calotype, a negative-positive paper process that was patented around the world but, importantly, not in Scotland, allowing for free use and experimentation. As a result, early Scottish photographers were encouraged to take up the new technology, becoming key figures in developing its potential as both document and art form within its first two decades.