St Andrews University Library

This sequence has been gathered together and forms a series of images of places, including much material on St Andrews itself.

From the guide to the St Andrews University Library General Topographical Sequence, [17th century] - [ongoing], (University of St Andrews)

These two sequences have been gathered together and form the core archive of images of people, mainly of relevance to the history of the University of St Andrews.

From the guide to the St Andrews University Library General Portrait and Group Sequences, 13th century to date, (University of St Andrews)

This is a gathered collection of albums which have come into the possession of the library by various methods.

From the guide to the General Albums Sequence of St Andrews University Library, 1842-[ongoing], (University of St Andrews)

The University's photographic collections are constantly growing. The 'other collections', contain a wealth of material relating to Scotland, the UK and indeed the world. Some are the work of lesser-known photographers, others numerically smaller than those collections individually described. They cover a huge variety of subjects of local, national and international interest; landscape, townscape, industrial, architectural, archaeological, social and scientific, and date from the later nineteenth century almost to the present day.

From the guide to the Small photographic collections of St Andrews University Library., 1850s - [ongoing], (University of St Andrews)

Largely because of the enthusiasm of Sir David Brewster (then Principal of the United College of St Andrews University) and his acquaintance with William Henry Fox Talbot, who announced his invention of the negative-positive photographic process in early 1839, St Andrews became a key site for pioneering work in the development of photography. Brewster (1781-1868) had been corresponding with Fox Talbot since his introduction to him in 1826 by the astronomer Sir John Herschel. The Literary and Philosophical Society of St Andrews was founded in 1838, an association of university and professional men, to whom Brewster, as Vice-President, exhibited the frequent examples he received of Talbot's latest experiments in photography. By 1841 a group of enthusiastic photographers was active in St Andrews and Brewster, along with Dr John Adamson, Hugh Lyon Playfair and other citizens of St Andrews were producing Daguerreotypes and attempting to replicate Talbot's process of producing 'calotypes'.

John Adamson (1809-1870), perhaps to be regarded as the 'father' of Scottish photography, was a local medical practitioner and part-time lecturer in the University. He was educated in St Andrews and studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh from 1826-9 where he was a contemporary of James Y Simpson and Charles Darwin. He returned to St Andrews to practise medicine in 1835 after a period in Paris and a voyage to China as a ship's surgeon. He was awarded an MD from St Andrews in 1843. As a leading member of the Literary and Philosophical Society of which he was secretary (and curator of the museum until his death), he was instrumental in the experimentation with the calotype process. He was an experienced chemist and, around the spring of 1842, either by himself or with the help of his brother, Robert, he mastered the calotype, so effectively that Robert departed to Edinburgh in May 1843 intent on pursuing the production of calotypes as a career. John himself adopted the new collodion process invented by Frederick Scott Archer in 1851 and continued to practise portraiture until his death. He had a considerable clientele, drawn mainly from the professional and landed classes and their families. He also photographed celebrities who visited St Andrews. His portraits seemed to overcome the limitations in focus of the early cameras and the subjects appear relaxed.

The most famous of the early photographic partnerships, Hill and Adamson, was formed when Robert Adamson (1821-1848), younger brother of John, linked with the Edinburgh artist David Octavius Hill (1802-1870) for an extraordinarily creative five-year period before Adamson's early death in 1848. Adamson opened Scotland's first calotype studio at Rock House on Calton Hill, Edinburgh in May 1843 and was introduced to Hill shortly thereafter. Hill had been born and educated in Perth, the pupil of Edinburgh painter Alexander Nasmyth, and later Secretary to the Royal Scottish Academy. Initially he wanted to produce a picture of the 'Disruption' of the Church of Scotland at the General Assembly of 1843 and embraced the calotype to preserve the images of the 500 ministers involved. However he soon realised the potential of the process and entered into a partnership with Adamson where his input was artistic, the arrangements of the sitters and the composition, leaving the technical processes and manipulation of the images to Adamson. As an artist Hill liked the lack of definition and the grainy indistinct appearance of the calotype image and regarded it as an interpretative rather than a descriptive medium. The partnership produced about 3000 images, around three quarters being portraiture.

Thomas Rodger (1833-1888) set up one of the earliest commercial photographic studios in the country in St Andrews in 1849. He was born in St Andrews and educated at Madras College before being apprenticed to a chemist and druggist in the town. Whilst an apprentice he regularly assisted in the Chemistry Room of the United College where he became a protege of Dr John Adamson. He was introduced to those experimenting in early photography around 1840 and was invited, on the recommendation of John Adamson, to assist Lord Kinnaird in his calotype studio at Rossie Priory. Thereafter he attended the Andersonian College of Glasgow for two sessions but was diverted from his medical studies by Dr John Adamson who persuaded him to set up a professional business in calotyping. He was so successful that he was able to commission a house and studio in 1866 from architect George Rae, and remained at 6 St Mary's Place until his death. The St Andrews in which he worked was growing in popularity due to golf, the introduction of the railway and increased tourism, and the revival of the University. He photographed academics, gentry and royalty but also published landscape photographs individually and in albums to satisfy the tourist market for views of historic and picturesque locations. He received a number of awards including: Aberdeen Mechanics' Institution Medal (1853), Scottish Society of Arts Medal for paper on 'Colodion Calotype' (1854), Edinburgh Photographic Society Medal (1856) and International Photographic Exhibition Medal (1877).

From the guide to the Early Photography Collection of St Andrews University Library, 1842-1870, (University of St Andrews)