Photographs [mainly Amateur Photographic Association]

67 albumen prints by various photographers. Mainly prize-winning images by members of the Amateur Photographic Association, dating from the 1860s. Most of the pictures are landscape views in Britain and Europe, but include some domestic scenes. The album includes a few commercial prints.
Dougan 101 appears to be a pair with Dougan 102.

Arrangement:
The prints are pasted on one side of each album page. Most have captions giving the title and the name of the photographer. The prize-winning images are not ordered chronologically by date of their award although most of the earlier prints are in Dougan 101 and the later ones in Dougan 102.

Dating:
c 1862 – c 1871
The majority of prints from the Amateur Photographic Association are prize winning photographs. These can be dated from reports of the association’s activities in the photographic press, particularly the British Journal of Photography. They date from the first award of prizes in 1862 with latest identified prints being 1871. (Prints have been dated the year that they were awarded a prize, although they could have been taken earlier.)

Provenance:
Dougan 101, item 2 shows the antiquarian Alexander Thomson and his wife Jessy Fraser in the library of their home, Banchory House, near Aberdeen. The album also includes an image of their gravestone but any connection between their family and the album is unclear. Inside the front cover is stamped ‘A Brown & Co Aberdeen’, probably the supplier of the album.

Photographers:
Many of the photographers represented in Dougan 101 and 102 correspond to what has been written about an album at the University of New Mexico, also featuring images by members of the Amateur Photographers Association; the prize winners are “often military men or borderline professionals actively involved in a number of societies” whose subjects are idealised rural views.

Between 1862 and 1867 the British Journal of Photography gives the title of the prize photographs as well as the photographers. From 1868 the photographer’s name and the number of the print are given. This causes problems of identification because many of the prints do not have a number or the number is difficult to decipher.

Among the commercial prints there are some unusual images by the Aberdeen professional photographer George Washington Wilson. They are possibly early or proof prints as they do not have the normal style of caption that appear on Wilson’s commercial prints, nor the distinctive letters “GWW”.

William Donaldson Clark’s photograph of the Cowgate, Edinburgh, (Dougan 101, item 60), is one of the most impressive images in either album for its innovative viewpoint; Clark was composing photographically rather than borrowing from the conventions of painting.

Technical and physical aspects:
Although the compositions correspond to a conventional approach, reflecting upper class sensibilities, there are still many fine images which demonstrate an exceptional degree of technical accomplishment. Wet plate collodion appears to be the most commonly used process which, for the landscape scenes would have meant transporting a considerable amount of equipment. There are also prints that have used dry-plates as this was a prize category and these would have required a much longer exposure.

Cloth covered album with leather spine and corners. The covers may have originally been maroon or burgundy coloured but have faded.

Access to this item may be restricted or closed for reasons of conservation or preservation. Please email Archives and Special Collections for advice: library-asc@glasgow.ac.uk

See also University of Glasgow Collections

Surrogate to be used