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EPS
Membership continued to increase, and by the 1880s, a campaign was underway
for premises that the society could buy and fit out with a library and
darkrooms. The campaign
strengthened when news reached Edinburgh that the West of Scotland Amateur
Photographic Association had set up a darkroom in Glasgow in 1884.
A
campaign began for EPS to acquire premises:
“to become possessed of a local habitation [where Members] would be able to
spend an evening in congenial company, to both their pleasure and profit; to
have ready access to both the literature and other property of the Society;
to have use of a commodious, well-equipped darkroom, and many conveniences
including refreshments – temperance at least”
"The
members would be able to spend a spare evening in congenial company, to both
their pleasure and their profit; to have ready access to the literature and
other property of the Society; to have the use of a commodious well-equipped
dark room and many conveniences which need not be specified."
"To
these might be added, as a variety, a few recreative games. In fact, let us have rooms, plain but useful, comfortable and
attractive, and I feel certain the Society would continue its career with
greater vigour and increased numbers."
[FD
Todd: EPS Transactions 1890]
The
plea for EPS to have its own premises was eloquently expressed in the 4th
verse of McKean’s
Recitation – a poem especially written for the occasion of the EPS
Annual Dinner held at Imperial Hotel on Friday 12 December 1884. His
poem included:
Though
brush and camera must unite,
Their
lovers live in sorrow
A
room with non-actinic light
They want to beg or borrow.
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