EPS Wednesday Meetings

Photographic Societies in the 1860s

At the time that the Edinburgh Photographic Society  was established, the British Journal of Photography Almanac listed 15 Photographic Societies throughout Britain.  These all held their meetings monthly during the winter months. Almost all had a break of several months in the summer.  But not EPS ...

Edinburgh Photographic Society decided to hold meetings fortnightly throughout the winter, and also held monthly meetings in the summer.   

The inaugural meeting was held on Wednesday 20 February 1861. Ever since that first meeting (except for a short period around 1883 when the room was not available), Wednesday has been the main evening for the Society’s meetings. For almost 100 years the meetings started at 8pm or 8.15pm, then at 7.45pm.  Now they begin at 7.30pm

EPS Meetings in the 1860s

These meetings were originally described as General Meetings of the Society.  In the early years, these followed a similar format to that used by the Photographic Society of Scotland from 1856 onwards.

-    Minutes of previous Meeting

-    Ballot for new members

-    Lecture, or occasionally an exhibition of photographs

-    Items exhibited

-    Any Other Business

Many of the EPS members had previously been members of PSS. 

EPS meetings were less formal than those of the PSS, and offered more opportunity for informal debate, especially amongst the practising professional photographers of the day.

More Recently ... 

More recently, regular activities at Wednesday evening meetings have included:

-    Lectures and demonstrations from EPS members and visitors

-    Print and Slide competitions - known as Club Night from 1954 

-    Opening Night each Season - information for new member

-    Joint meetings with other societies and with galleries

-   Visiting exhibitions and Inter-club competitions

-   Auctions of photographic equipment and EPS members’ photographs

-   Social Evenings  - Christmas Parties and President’s Evening

Topics and Speakers

This web site provides two lists for EPS  Wednesday Meetings:

- List of Speakers 

- List of Lecture Titles.  

These lists have been compiled from many sources:

-  EPS Minutes

-  EPS Journals and Bulletins

-  EPS Syllabuses 

-  EPS Reports to AGMs

-  British Journal of Photography and other journal reports

Sometimes these sources gave incomplete or conflicting information, particularly regarding the title of the lecture and the full name of the speaker.

Where there are discrepancies on this site between these List of Speakers and the List of Lecture Titles, the former is likely to be the more reliable.