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Early Photographers

John Muir Wood

1805-1892

Family

John Muir Wood was born in Edinburgh to a family that manufactured square pianos, organs, harps and drums, and published sheet music.

Travel

John Muir Wood travelled in Europe from 1826, studying music.  In the 1840s and 1850s he produced a large number of calotypes.  About 900 of these have been donated to the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh.  Several of these appear in the book: The Photography of John Muir Wood, An Accomplished Amateur 1805-1892.

International Photography

John Muir Wood took portraits and landscapes in the 1847 or earlier. in Scotland, England, Ireland, France, Belgium and Germany.

In one of his calotypes of St Giles' Church in Edinburgh, a van belonging to 'Eliza Cook, Dispatch Portrait Company' can be seen.  It would be interesting to learn more about this company as it might give an indication of when the photograph was taken.

Colours of Prints

John Muir Wood experimented in using different metals, including copper, tin and other metals, to produce a range of tones in his photos.  There is a note on the back of one of his purplish prints referring to uranium, but the print has been analysed in Edinburgh and no trace of the metal has been found.

In the 1850s and 1860s, he used the carbon process.

Contacts

John Muir Wood knew and photographed the Cundell family of photographers in Leith.

He went on a tour of the west of Scotland in 1841 with the history and landscape painter, James Eckford Lauder (1811-1869).

Experiments

John Muir Wood made many experiments in producing different colours and more permanence in his calotype work.  His experiments included salts of uranium, carbon and gold toning.

Images

The Scottish National Photographic Gallery collection  includes many  salt paper prints from John Muir Wood's calotype negatives. 

Sixty eight images from the SNPG John Muir Wood collection are reproduced in the book, The Photography of John Muir Wood, An Accomplished Amateur 1805-1892.

These include:

-  portraits and groups

-  old street scenes in Europe

-  views of Edinburgh (Canongate Tolbooth and St Bernard's Well

-  abbeys and monuments in Scotland

-  woodland studies

Acknowledgement:  The Photography of John Muir Wood, An Accomplished Amateur 1805-1892
                                [Sara Stevenson, Julie Lawson, Michael Gray]:    Publ. SNPG:    ISBN 1 85378 007 3

                    ALSO:  Light from the Dark Room [National Galleries of Scotland, 1995]