About Photography: A Victorian Sensation
The Victorian craze for the photograph transformed the way we capture images and mirrors our own modern-day fascination for recording the world around us.
This exhibition provided an opportunity to meet the pioneers of photography. Visitors could follow the cross-channel competition between photographic trailblazers Louis Daguerre and William Henry Fox Talbot, enter the world of the 1851 Great Exhibition and see some of the world’s first stereophotographs. Visitors got insight into the collecting craze of the carte-de-visite and discovered the fascinating stories of the people behind the pictures, including Hill and Adamson’s beautiful images of Victorian Edinburgh.
Exhibition highlights
Carte-de-visite of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, photographed by Robert Howlett. From the Howarth-Loomes Collection at National Museums Scotland.
Box roll-film camera, Six-20 Brownie Junior, by Kodak Ltd, Great Britain, 1934 - 1938.
Carte-de-visite of the Pritchard family. Dr Edward Pritchard would later be convicted of poisoning his wife and mother-in-law. Part of the Howarth-Loomes Collection at National Museums Scotland.
Daguerreotype camera, brass cylindrical body on a pillar stand, with two end caps and one single brass dark slide, attributed to Thomas Davidson of Edinburgh, 1840.
Carte-de-visite depicting Mademoiselle Scherazade, a female elephant trainer, between two elephants standing on barrels, by F. C. Edmonds.
Carte-de-visite depicting the Grassmarket and Edinburgh Castle, by Archibald Burns, Edinburgh.
Stereoviewer, the 'Natural stereoscope', patent no. 1611, by John Hirst & Joseph Wood, Birkby, Huddersfield, 1862.
This stereocard made by the London Stereoscopic Company, shows a display put on by the Northern Lighthouse Board at the 1862 International Exhibition, held in London. Part of the Howarth-Loomes Collection at National Museums Scotland.
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