The Edinburgh Calotype Club (1843 – c.1850s) of Scotland was the first photographic club in the world. Its members consisted of pioneering photographers primarily from

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

and

St Andrews St Andrews (; ; , pronounced ʰʲɪʎˈrˠiː.ɪɲ is a town on the east coast of Fife in Scotland, southeast of Dundee and northeast of Edinburgh. St Andrews had a recorded population of 16,800 , making it Fife's fourth-largest settleme ...

. The efforts of the Club's members resulted in the production of two of the world's earliest assembled photographic albums, consisting of more than 300 images.

Foundation

The group was formed after the introduction of calotype photography to Edinburgh gentlemen by

David Brewster Sir David Brewster Knight of the Royal Guelphic Order, KH President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, PRSE Fellow of the Royal Society of London, FRS Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, FSA Scot Fellow of the Scottish Society of ...

, then Principal of

St Andrews University The University of St Andrews (, ; abbreviated as St And in post-nominals) is a public university in St Andrews, Scotland. It is the oldest of the four ancient universities of Scotland and, following the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, t ...

, and also a close friend of the inventor of the calotype process,

Henry Fox Talbot William Henry Fox Talbot (; 11 February 180017 September 1877) was an English scientist, inventor, and photography pioneer who invented the salted paper and calotype processes, precursors to photographic processes of the later 19th and 20th c ...

. Talbot sent Brewster examples of his work well before publishing on his findings, and it was Brewster who suggested that Talbot should only

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...

his invention in England, and not Scotland, which eventually allowed for the club's formation. Talbot sent Brewster examples of his calotype photography, but Brewster had to turn to a colleague at St Andrews, the Professor of Chemistry Dr John Adamson, in order to discover how to reproduce his friend's process. Although John Adamson was the first person in Scotland to use calotype photography, it was his brother,

Robert The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of ''Hrōþ, Hruod'' () "fame, glory, honour, prais ...

, who was to take up photography as a passion and a profession, eventually establishing the country's first photographic studio,

Hill & Adamson Hill & Adamson was the first photography studio in Scotland, set up by painter David Octavius Hill and engineer Robert Adamson in 1843. During their brief partnership that ended with Adamson's untimely death, Hill & Adamson produced "the first ...

, with painter and pioneering photographer

David Octavius Hill David Octavius Hill (20 May 1802 – 17 May 1870) was a Scottish painter, photographer and arts activist. He formed Hill & Adamson studio with the engineer and photographer Robert Adamson between 1843 and 1847 to pioneer many aspects of p ...

. A visit from James Montgomery, who was studying in Edinburgh to enter the

Faculty of Advocates The Faculty of Advocates () is an independent body of lawyers who have been admitted to practise as advocates before the courts of Scotland, especially the Court of Session and the High Court of Justiciary. The Faculty of Advocates is a const ...

, and a group of friends who were interested in Brewster's and John Adamson's reproduction of the calotype process, allegedly led to the formation of the Edinburgh Calotype Club itself.

Membership

The membership of the Club was composed of professional gentlemen from a variety of backgrounds - including clerics, academics and physicians - in both Edinburgh and St Andrews. Meetings of the club are described as being generally informal, and retrospective on the Club from an 1874 edition of '' The British Journal of Photography'' states that had "neither laws, office-bearers, or formalities of any kind":

"The meetings were held periodically at the houses of the members alternately, and generally each took the form of a breakfast, although when some greater step than ordinary had been made in advance it was generally honoured by being introduced to the members at a formal dinner."

Despite the lack of records, the names of eight members have been traced, and the albums themselves include the names of five members as well as a number of associates.

Notable members

The club's membership included many notable figures of the time, particularly from Edinburgh and St Andrews, including: :* John Adamson (1810-1870), doctor and chemist in

(1781-1868), Scottish physicist, mathematician, astronomer, inventor, and writer :*

John Cay John Lidell Cay FRSE Royal Scottish Society of Arts, PRSSA (31 August 1790 – 13 December 1865) was a Scottish advocate, pioneer photographer and antiquarian. He served as the Sheriff of Clackmannan, Sheriff of Linlithgowshire 1822–65. He w ...

(1790-1865), advocate :*

Cosmo Innes Cosmo Nelson Innes FRSE (9 September 1798 – 31 July 1874) was a Scottish advocate, judge, historian and antiquary. He served as Advocate-Depute, Sheriff of Elginshire, and Principal Clerk of Session. He was a skilled decipherer of ancient ...

(1798-1874), Scottish historian and antiquary :* James Calder Macphail (1821-1908), minister :* James Montgomery (1818-1897), advocate and Episcopalian clergyman :* Mark Napier (1798-1879), historian :* Hugh Lyon Playfair (1786-1861), Provost of

(1800-1877), inventor and pioneer of photography :* George Moir (1800-1870), advocate and author :* Robert Tennent (1813-1890) and his younger brother Hugh Lyon Tennent (1817-1874)

Dissolution

The Edinburgh Calotype Club continued meeting until sometime in the 1850s; although the exact date when it ceased to exist is not known, curators at the

National Library of Scotland The National Library of Scotland (NLS; ; ) is one of Scotland's National Collections. It is one of the largest libraries in the United Kingdom. As well as a public programme of exhibitions, events, workshops, and tours, the National Library of ...

suggest that it was likely around the mid 1850s, "when the albumen and collodion processes superseded the calotype... The Edinburgh Calotype Club had, in a sense, outlived its usefulness." The development of newer photographic technologies meant that photography was opened to a wider audience, and "spread like wildfire over the country." Some members of the Club, in particular David Brewster, George Moir and Cosmo Innes, went on to become active in the later Photographic Society of Scotland that was founded in 1856. Brewster became the President of the Photographic Society of Scotland, Moir one of its two vice presidents, and Innes a council member.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Albums of the Edinburgh Calotype Club
digital gallery from the

Organisations based in Edinburgh Scottish photography organisations Photography organizations established in the 19th century History of photography Pioneers of photography Culture in Edinburgh 1843 establishments in Scotland 1850s disestablishments in Scotland Culture in Fife Clubs and societies in Edinburgh