In October 2022, the Signet Library’s ongoing re-cataloguing project threw up something remarkable: a sixth surviving complete copy of Hill and Adamson’s 1846 album A Series of Calotype Views of St. Andrews - the sole copy to reside in Edinburgh itself. This was the only album that the pioneering Scottish partnership produced in multiple copies, and the Signet Library volume appears to be the most complete surviving example, retaining its original binding and 25 calotypes including that on the title page. It joins examples at the Library of the University of Glasgow, the Avery Library at the University of Columbia, the Getty Museum in Los Angeles and two copies at the Library of the University of St. Andrews. The Hay Fleming Library at the University of St. Andrews is home to a vitally important incomplete copy.
The Signet Library in Edinburgh is the headquarters and library of the Society of Writers to His Majesty’s Signet (the WS Society for short), a registered charity which comprises Scotland’s oldest corporate body of lawyers. On 31st March 2023 historians of photography joined an audience of Writers to the Signet and their guests at an event to celebrate the completion of conservation work on the Signet Library album and to reflect on its history and significance. The album itself was on display as part of a small exhibition from the Signet Library’s historic photographic collection, and guests heard a short talk on the album’s background and creation. The exhibition paid especial attention to the role in the Hill and Adamson partnership of Jessie Mann, now recognised as the world’s first female photographer but whose precise part in the success of the calotypists on Edinburgh’s Calton Hill is only now coming into proper view.
Unlike many of the surviving albums from the Hill and Adamson partnership, the Signet Library album possesses early Victorian provenance, pointing to the possible purchase of the album from David Octavius Hill by the Library in 1849. The Signet Library Librarian of the time, the bibliographer and historian David Laing, had been a sitter for Hill and Adamson, and was engaged in a special purchase of rare and illustrated books at the time that appear also to have included Hill’s youthful essay in lithography Sketches of Scenery in Perthshire. It’s indicative of the status of photography in the 1840s art world that whereas Sketches entered the Signet Library catalogue both under the name of its artist and under “Perthshire”, A Series of Calotype Views of St Andrews was entered under “St. Andrews” alone with no entry for its creators at all. This does however mean that the album stands every chance of being the first photobook acquired by a major library for the sake of its subject matter and not for the novelty of its medium.
The hand-out at the March event included a full analysis of the contents of all surviving copies of the St. Andrews album and an expanded version of this along with a full digital surrogate for the Signet album will be provided on the WS Society website shortly. (Given the album’s scarcity and vulnerability this surrogate will be the principle means of scholarly access going forward). It is also hoped to publish a full paper on the album and its significance in a recognised journal in the near future.
In the meantime enquiries about the album can be addressed to James Hamilton, Research Principal at the WS Society at jhamilton[at]wssociety.co.uk.
