PSS
History
January
1857 to
July 1857
Rapid
Growth
The
original proposers of the Photographic Society of Scotland anticipated that at the end of the first year,
the Society might
have about 20 or 30 members.
In
fact, Membership at the end of the first year had reached 119.
New applicants from Edinburgh and elsewhere in Scotland were balloted for and
elected as Members of the Society at the start of each meeting throughout the
Session
From
January 1857 onwards, the Society moved from 117 George
Street to more convenient and commodious premises at the Antiquarian
Rooms 51 George Street for its meetings.
Sir
David Brewster, President, occasionally took the chair, but more frequently it
was Horatio Ross in the Chair.
The
first AGM
The
first AGM was held on 10 March 1857. The
Patron, President, Vice Presidents, Hon Secretary and Hon Treasurer all
remained in office. John Coy was
elected as Hon Auditor. The Meeting
comprised:
-
Formal business of the evening,
-
Portable cameras exhibited and explained
-
Paper on The Collodion
Process read by Mr
During
the Meeting, Mr Rodger also:
-
prepared a plate
-
took a picture of a Bas Relief lighted by a jet of gas, and
-
developed it in the presence of the meeting.
A
similar sequence of events had occurred at the meeting two months earlier,
when James Ross had read his Paper:
-
The Albumen Process on Glass.
Other
Lectures
Other
Papers presented to the Society in
the early months of 1857 were on:
-
Photography in the
Mountains ....................
Horatio Ross
-
Uranium & other
Substances......................
Charles Burnett
-
Fading of
Photographs……........................James Tunny
-
Photographs on
Fluorescent Surfaces …...
George Wilson
-
Stereoscopic
Photography….....................
James Ross
-
A tour - the Coasts of
Spain....................…Cosmo Innes
-
Adhesive
Substances for
Mounting….......
Collin Sinclair
All
the speakers were, again, members of the Society, with the possible exception
of Professor George Wilson
In
some cases, the titles of the Papers were longer than those given above.
The full title of Collin Sinclair’s paper was:
"An Account of Experiments on the Various Adhesive Substances used in the
Mounting of Photographs as affecting the Permanency of the Print."
Items
displayed
Most
of the items displayed in early 1857 were collections of photos, demonstrating
different methods:
-
Photogaloamographic
Engravings by James Wood
-
Calotypes, and made some
observations on the use of Cyanide of Potassium in the Bromo-Iodizing Solution
by Mr Walker
-
Negative Photographs on
Albumenized paper
by Messrs McKinlay & Zeigler
-
Negative Photographs
on
Parchment paper by Prof. Wilson
The
Hon Secretary exhibited of and explained
-
a new form of portable camera
invented by Capt. Fowke RE:
Mr
Tunny exhibited:
- his newly invented
apparatus for printing stereoscopic transparencies on wet collodion
-
Pictures by his newly
discovered process of Heliography
Distribution
of Prints to Members
It
was suggested at the 1857 AGM that there should be
a distribution amongst the members of photographic works of high class,
executed exclusively for the Society.
The
picture proposed on this occasion was
Pitlessie
Fair
by Sir David Wilkie
"the only one of his works that had not yet been made public through the medium
of the engraver."
Unfortunately,
it was reported at the 1858 AGM that it had not possible to produce copies of
this print as planned "because of the unphotographic character of the
colours."
[Council
Report to PSS 1858 AGM]
So
instead, the Society selected and purchased pictures from the 2nd PSS
Exhibition, for an outlay of £33. These
were distributed to the members by ballot.
The
1858 AGM Report said:
"Believing that the funds of the Society cannot be laid out in a way better
calculated to aid and encourage the Art generally or more satisfactorily to
the Members themselves the Council propose that a similar distribution of
photos should be made next year."
The
tradition of distributing a photograph to each
members continued for a further 50 years - initially by PSS, and
subsequently by Edinburgh Photographic Society, in the form of a
“Presentation Print”.
Publication
of PSS Proceedings
For
the first year, PSS proceedings had been published in Photographic
Notes, the journal of the
Manchester Society. But this arrangement was not entirely satisfactory.
In
April 1857 it was announced that a change was to be made, and that the
Society's proceedings would in future be published in the Journal of the Photographic
Society, the
journal of the London Society.
Collection
for Scott Archer
In
June 1857 the Society contributed towards a collection for the Widow and Family of the late
Scott Archer,
the
introducer of the Collodion Process. The family had been left completely destitute.
PSS Members
were told:
"It is important that
the sum collected be forwarded to London immediately"
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