North Street Fisherfolk Stevenson St. Andrews 35. Women seated in front of houses prepare fishing lines. A single woman holding a baby approaches them.

The Brodie Album of Hill and Adamson Calotypes

Posted on by James Hamilton

The collecting of Hill and Adamson’s calotypes and prints, individually and collected into albums, remains open and exciting territory for scholarship. This description of an album now in the care of the National Library of Scotland is the first in a short series that seeks to draw attention to some interesting examples and the questions they raise.

For new listeners, Hill, Mann and Adamson (the Mann being Jessie Mann, now believed to be the first woman to take a photograph in Scotland1) were a photographic partnership that formed in the aftermath of the 1843 Disruption of the Church in Scotland whose work is now revered worldwide for its artistry, variety and skill. They are perhaps best known for their portraits and for their depictions of the fishing community at Newhaven-on-Forth. Although the work of the three was brief, ending with Robert Adamson’s early death at the beginning of 1848, their prints and paper negatives though prized survive in relatively large numbers and since the 1960s have been the focus of an extraordinary generation of brilliant photographic scholars2. Significant collections reside with the National Galleries of Scotland, the National Portrait Gallery in London, the Getty Museum and the Universities of Glasgow and St. Andrews amongst others.

The Brodie Album

Description

The Brodie Album (my coinage), shelfmark RB.m.32, is a large scrapbook measuring 23cm x 29cm, three-quarter bound in green leather and cloth with green marbled endpapers. The pages consist of thick, gilt-edged board, with some very mild signs of wear and clearly of an earlier date than the binding. It contains 64 salt prints, the majority of which are the work of Hill and Adamson, 6 albumen prints, 5 watercolours, four pencil sketches and a pair of newspaper cuttings.

Please note that in the interests of conservation the National Library of Scotland does not permit photography of original photographic images in their collections by readers and that therefore there are no images of the Brodie Album itself in this piece.

Provenance

The album was acquired either by the Advocates Library in Edinburgh prior to the 1925 creation of the National Library of Scotland, or in the early years of the National Library of Scotland to which the Advocates Library’s non-legal collections were transferred. The album was moved to its current shelfmark and status as a Special Collections item in the 1960s, and was rebound with new endpapers into its current form, either at the same time or during this period3.

There is no record of the album’s origins other than internal evidence drawing on the album’s contents. This consists of the sketches and one of the photographs, which take their origins from the artistic friendship between the sculptor William Brodie R.S.A. (1815-1881) and the painter John Phillip R.S.A. (1817-1867). Both men’s associations with the Royal Scottish Academy coincided with David Octavius Hill’s long career as the Academy’s secretary, which may give some hint as to how the Hill, Mann and Adamson prints in the album come to be grouped with the sketches. Brodie was the husband of Helen Chisholm (1817-1886) who is known to have kept at least one other scrapbook, also now with the National Library of Scotland (Acc.8093/1).

Some of the pages holding salt prints carry pencil annotations by way of identification: these annotations were made either prior to the publication of Sara Stevenson David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson: Catalogue of their Calotypes taken between 1843 and 1847 in the collection of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery (Edinburgh: National Galleries of Scotland, 1981) or without its use. (Henceforth Stevenson)

The album has a number of interesting or unusual features.

  • The album is in landscape format, unlike the vast majority of early Hill, Mann and Adamson albums whether issued by the partnership itself from Calton Hill or collected and assembled by others. (The notable exception here is the Lyon Family album discovered in Australia in 19984
  • Image #42 in the album represents one of the rare appearances of a print of Robert Adamson with his family. A similar print was included by David Octavius Hill in the albums donated to the Royal Academy in London in 1848, but Stevenson lists only two examples and the Dougan Collection at the University of Glasgow has only one. It is an intriguing surprise to find an example here.
  • Image #57 in the album is reversed from Stevenson Newhaven 51 “Unknown Boys”. Calotypes were paper negatives and so reversible, and examples are relatively uncommon.
  • Images #24 and #34 (William Etty Stevenson a) are duplicates, as are images #54 and #62 (Mrs. Logan et al Stevenson Newhaven 47). This is exceptionally unusual to encounter in an album of calotypes and may be unique amongst surviving albums. It is notable that the artist William Etty used a copy of Stevenson a as the basis for two self-portraits. The presence of the duplicates may indicate that the salt prints collected here are a combination of separate collections; alternatively the duplicates may have been obtained for gifts that were never in the end presented; alternatively the album may simply have come to the Brodies (if the Brodies were indeed the owner) in that form and was subsequently added to by them. These are three amongst any number of alternative scenarios.
  • Image #19 is not captioned and is not in Stevenson or in any other collection that the author has sufficient access to to make an identification. The man depicted resembles a sharper-faced version of the publisher John Murray, who was photographed by the partnership, but also resembles another gentleman of the same name, Sir John Archibald Murray of Henderland, Lord Advocate of Scotland (1778-1859) who is a perhaps surprising absence otherwise from the subjects photographed by Hill, Mann and Adamson.
  • Image #51 depicts members of the 42nd Gordon Highlanders gathered along the side of a cannon at Edinburgh Castle, and although the image is clearly related to the scene in Stevenson Military 4 it is not in Stevenson or in any other collection that the author has sufficient access to to make an identification.
  • Most of the salt prints are what Stevenson describes as “Print Size 4” i.e. approx 208 x 157mm and, by contrast to the crowded pages of many early private photographic albums, are granted the digity of (in most cases) a leaf to themselves, or at least a page to themselves. Where two Hill, Mann and Adamson salt prints share a page, the prints are what Stevenson describes as “Print Size 5” i.e. approx 156 x 115mm. Image #63 St. Andrew’s Cathedral Stevenson St. Andrews 71 is “Print Size 6” 94 x 89 mm, and is notably more faded than other Hill, Mann and Adamson images in the album. Size 6 images date from the very earliest period of the partnership and there has been suggestion that Dr. John Adamson, Robert Adamson’s elder brother in St. Andrews was involved to a greater or lesser degree with St. Andrews images of this print size.
  • Four of the albumen prints in the album depict paintings of the Madonna by Raphael and Holbein. Some of these paintings were and are located in Dresden: one of the early photographers to work with these pictures was the Frenchman Adolphe Braun (1812-1877) although these images may be too early to be his work (and his art photography may have deployed carbon prints).
  • The final Hill, Mann and Adamson print in the album is #65 Miss Bell (2) Stevenson c which is also the only image carrying an obviously nineteenth century caption, in black ink, reading “Study photographed by D.O.Hill RSA”. The print is separated from the others by a pair of unsigned watercolours, which may reinforce the idea that the album was acquired by the Brodies with the bulk of the salt prints already present, with the family subsequently adding in items, rather than the whole being their own compilation.

Album Contents in Order of Inclusion

Items are listed in order of inclusion, where appropriate with Stevenson references and print sizes.

  1. John Gibson Stevenson a Print Size 4
  2. Rev. Dr. Abraham Capadose Stevenson a Print Size 4
  3. Dr. James Inglis Stevenson a Print Size 4
  4. Rev. Thomas Scott of Peel Stevenson a Print Size 4
  5. (i) “John Wilson” [not H+A? or possibly copy of PGP HA 3419 James Brownlie Hunter bequest 1928 at SNPG]
  6. (ii) James Ballantyne Stevenson c Print Size 4
  7. Reverend Dr. David Welsh Stevenson c Print Size 4
  8. (i) “McIntosh the Ernest Student” [1822-1851] John Mackintosh Stevenson a Print Size 5
  9. (ii) Rev. Dr. Thomas Chalmers Stevenson f Print Size 5
  10. “JLR” variant of Stevenson a Print Size 5
  11. Robert Cunningham Graham Spiers Stevenson a Print Size 4
  12. David Maitland Makgill Crichton Stevenson c Print Size 5
  13. Sir John Steell Stevenson a Print Size 4
  14. Linlithgow Stevenson Landscape 14 Print Size 4
  15. James Drummond Stevenson b Print Size 4
  16. The Pends Stevenson St. Andrews 26 Print Size 4
  17. Sir William Allan Stevenson a Print Size 5
  18. Greyfriars Churchyard.. Stevenson Edinburgh 63 Print Size 5
  19. Rev. Dr. Jabez Bunting Stevenson a Print Size 4
  20. Lane and Redding Stevenson Group 163 Print Size 4
  21. No caption, not in Stevenson. John Murray, publisher or Lord Advocate?
    [Looking to right. Two hands on large book held in the vertical, tartan pattern neckscarf, bald but hair on back of his head behind ears]
  22. David Roberts Stevenson a Print Size 4
  23. Lane Stevenson b Print Size 4
  24. Rev. Moir and John Gibson Stevenson Group 195 Print Size 4
  25. College Church of St Salvator looking west along North Street Stevenson St. Andrews 38 Print Size 4
  26. William Etty Stevenson a Print Size 4
  27. Andrew Jameson Stevenson a Print Size 4
  28. Mrs. Anne Rigby Stevenson f Print Size 4
  29. South Street, the east end.. Stevenson St. Andrews 48 Print Size 4
  30. Finlay [deerstalker] Stevenson g Print Size 4
  31. John Stevens Stevenson b Print Size 4
  32. Thomas Duncan Stevenson b Print Size 4
  33. Greyfriars Churchyard.. Stevenson Edinburgh 50 Print Size 4
  34. James Aytoun Stevenson b Print Size 4
  35. Greyfriars Churchyard.. Stevenson Edinburgh 77 Print Size 4
  36. William Etty Stevenson a [duplicate of 24] Print Size 4
  37. Dundee Presbytery Stevenson Presbytery Group 8 Print Size 4
  38. Layman Beecher Stevenson a Print Size 4
  39. Miss Murray Stevenson a Print Size 4
  40. James Nasmyth Stevenson c Print Size 4
  41. North Street Fisherfolk Stevenson St. Andrews 35 Print Size 4
  42. John Knox’s House Stevenson Edinburgh 1 Print Size 4
  43. Greyfriars Churchyard.. Stevenson Edinburgh 61 Print Size 4
  44. Adamson Family Stevenson Group 5 Print Size 4
  45. Miss Barker Stevenson a Print Size 4
  46. Mrs. Cleghorn and John Henning as Miss Wardour and Edie Ochiltree..Stevenson Group 128 Print Size 4
  47. Dr. George Bell et al Stevenson Group 35 Print Size 4
  48. Edinburgh Ale Stevenson Group 27 Print Size 4
  49. Newhaven Fishwives Stevenson Newhaven 57 Print Size 4
  50. Dunbarton Presbytery Stevenson Presbytery Group 6 Print Size 4
  51. Newhaven Fishermen Stevenson Newhaven 32 Print Size 4
  52. Newhaven Fishwives Stevenson Newhaven 35 Print Size 4
  53. Edinburgh Castle: Soldiers with cannon [not in Stevenson]
  54. The Porthole: Stevenson Military 1 Print Size 4
  55. His Father’s Breeks Stevenson Newhaven 8 Print Size 4
  56. Mrs. Logan et al Stevenson Newhaven 47 Print Size 4
  57. James Linton Stevenson Newhaven 1 Print Size 4
  58. Mrs. Flucker Stevenson Newhaven 11 Print Size 4
  59. Unknown boys, reversed from Stevenson Newhaven 51 Print Size 4
  60. Unknown Group Stevenson Newhaven 58 Print Size 4
  61. Jimmy Miller Stevenson d Print Size 4
  62. Jimmy Miller Stevenson b Print Size 4
  63. Mrs. Grace Ramsay et al Stevenson Newhaven 48 Print Size 4
  64. Mrs. Logan et al Stevenson Newhaven 47 [duplicate of 54] Print Size 4
  65. St. Andrew’s Cathedral Stevenson St. Andrews 71 Print Size 6
  66. 2 unsigned watercolours of river scenes/chapels.
  67. Miss Bell (2) Stevenson c “Study photographed by D.O.Hill RSA” (C19 hand, ink) Print Size 4
  68. Watercolour of woman; watercolour of Loch Muich after Cassie
  69. 4 small photographs: (a) Raphael Madonna Dresden; (b) Holbein Madonna Dresden; (c) Raphael Madonna (unveiling child); (d) Raphael Madonna holding child with cherub
  70. “Photograph from the Picture by John Phillip R.A. of the Marriage of the Princess Royal 1859.”
  71. Sketch: Phillip RA del. “A portrait sketched by Mr. Phillip the night after we came from the Opera of a lady who was in the box next us + presented to Helen Brodie [wife of William Brodie] 1 South Villas Campden Hill Kensington May 1863 [home of John Phillip d.1867].
  72. Photographic print of Sir Walter Scott in his Study
  73. Sketches: “William Brodie RSA by Douglas Harvey taken in Rome 1852”; “Tottles a Year Old”; 2 clippings about Edinburgh tram 14 May 1872

I would like to thank Dr. Graham Hogg and the curators and librarians of the National Library of Scotland for the warmth, generosity, help and advice they have given me both in relation to the album and more generally – nothing was ever too much trouble and I am in their debt.

Footnotes

  1. Simpson, Roddy ‘The mysterious Miss Mann’ in Proceedings of the National Trust for Scotland Symposium ‘Ways of Seeing’ Women and Photography in Scotland (Studies in Photography 2020) p.46 ↩︎
  2. See, amongst many excellent alternatives, Anne Lyden A Perfect Chemistry: Photography by Hill & Adamson (Edinburgh: National Galleries of Scotland, 2017) and Sara Stevenson Facing the Light: The Photography of Hill & Adamson (Edinburgh: Scottish National Portrait Gallery, 2002) ↩︎
  3. Email to author from Dr. Graham Hogg, Curator [19th Century Printed Collections and Photographs] 20 February 2024 ↩︎
  4. Larry Schaaf, Sun Pictures Catalogue Eleven: St. Andrews and Early Scottish Photography including Hill & Adamson (New York: Hans P. Kraus Jnr, 2002) p. 15 ↩︎