People of the 1840s

Amazing portraits from the photographic team of David Octavious Hill and Robert Adamson, working in Edinburgh in the 1840s. Adamson set up the first photographic studio in Scotland in 1843, using the calotype process [as opposed to daguerreotype, the other main process of early photography]; Hill was a painter. Their experimentation and creativity led to some of the most striking photographs of the era, before coming to a sad end when Adamson died suddenly aged 27. [source]

Photographs from 1843-1847.

Sir John Steell, sculptor. Source

Charlotte Lockhart, granddaughter of Sir Walter Scott. Source

James Drummond, painter and curator of the National Gallery of Scotland. Source

George Coombe, phrenologist. Source

Lady Elizabeth Eastlake, writer. Source

Isabella Burns, youngest sister of Robert Burns. Source

Mr. Laing (or Laine). Source

James Nasmyth, inventor of the steam hammer. Source

Mohun Lal. Source

Harriet Farnie, Miss Farnie, and sleeping puppy Brownie. Source

Sir George Harvey, painter. Source

Sandy (or James) Linton with his boat and children. Source

George Troup and William Gibson. Source

Thomas Duncan, artist. Source

Hugh Miller, geologist and author. Source

Willie Liston, fisherman. Source

Sophia Finlay and Harriet Farnie. Source

James Ballantine, Dr. George Bell and photographer David Octavius Hill have a drink and a laugh. Source

Anne Chalmers. Source

Finlay, deerstalker. Source

Alexander Rutherford, William Ramsay, and John Liston. Source

A Newhaven [ship's] pilot. Source

Photographer David Octavius Hill with his daughter Charlotte. Source