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Comments
-1890s
EPS
Popular Meetings
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Musical
Entertainment
In
the 1890s, musical entertainment continued at many of the meetings, the
Popular Meeting where EPS Members' slides were shown each
year.
At
the First Popular
Meeting of the 1890s, 45 lantern slides from 27 Members
were shown. Songs were sung during the evening and met with hearty
applause.
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James
Patrick
In
1893, James Patrick gave a lecture Round
About the Farm, for which he provided the slides and Mrs Findlay
provided the text.
The
following year, the same team delivered a lecture:
Rambles through Fife with a Camera.
This lecture was illustrated with 120 slides.
It was interspersed with poetry, and songs illustrative of the
Fife fishing industry were sung by Mr Patrick, Mrs Findlay and Miss
Snailum.
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1895
Concert
In
Jan 1895 - three
years after the Society had acquired its own premises - a successful
Musical and Dramatic Evening was arranged in Queen Street Hall, with a
view to wiping off the Society’s debt.
The Council announced that a number of the best-known
professional and amateur artists in the city had kindly agreed to give
their services.
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1899
Concert
In
Mar 1899, a further Concert was held.
This time the purpose was to provide the nucleus
of a fund for the acquisition of larger premises.
The performances were apparently a great success. There was a
large audience, but the EPS Council would have preferred to see greater
support from amongst the EPS membership.
Artists
performing at the concert included violin, pianists, soprano, contralto,
baritone, elocutionist and accompanists.
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Finances
Until
1992, Members had been given free tickets for the Popular Meetings for
use by themselves and friends.
But
from Jan 1893, EPS Council decided that, if possible, these meetings
should be self-supporting.
Members were to be given one free ticket with Transactions, and
were told that further tickets could be obtained at 6d each or 3 for 1/-
from the Secretary or from any of the photographic dealers in Edinburgh.
In
1896, The EPS Council confirmed that:
"it was not desirous of making any profit from Popular Evenings, merely
that they pay their expenses and the price is calculated on this basis."
By this time, the special offer of 3 tickets for 1/- had been
discontinued.
Despite
the charges, the Popular Lectures continued to fill Queen Street Hall.
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Architecture
and Geography
During
the 1890s, some of the Popular Meetings were becoming more informative.
In
1890, Hippolyte J Blanc delivered a lecture: Abbeys
and Cathedrals of Scotland.
This was described in the Transactions as:
"a highly
instructive lecture treating the buildings in approx chronological order
and pointing out the features by which the dates could be identified."
In
1893, WW Robertson FSA Scot. of HM Board of Works gave a lecture on
Holyrood
Abbey and Palace.
In
1896, JG Goodchild gave a lecture: The
Scottish Coastline.
"He showed
a magnificent series of slides demonstrating the gradual wearing away of
our rockbound coast by the action of the sea."
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Halls
for Popular Meetings
Almost
all Popular Meetings from 1856 to 1901 have been held at Queen Street
Hall, exceptions being:
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The
January 1897 Meeting was held at the Albert Hall Shandwick Place.
The Hall was:
"filled to overflowing by a highly interested and delighted crowd."
It was Prof.
Robert Wallace, Professor of Agriculture and Rural Economy at Edinburgh
University, who gave the lecture on his return from a trip to South
Africa:
"that
now famous part of Her Majesty’s dominions."
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The
March 1898 Meeting was held at the Edinburgh Literary Institute, South
Clerk Street
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Shadowgraphs
January
1896: An
extra feature was added to the end of the Popular Meeting
- the
projection of ten views,
illustrative of the “new photography” or
“shadowgraphs”.
This
was provided by courtesy of Mr J Campbell Swinton of London, Mr Dawson
Turner of Edinburgh and Messrs Walls & Fraser, 47 Lothian Street
Edinburgh. images
were projected upon the screen, which seemed
to be much appreciated by the audience.
February
1896: This demonstration, last month, had been arranged at short notice, so could not be
announced ahead of the meeting.
Some EPS Members grumbled that they had not attended the meeting,
so had missed the showing.
So it was agreed that there would be a
further showing of a number of slides illustrative of this new and wonderful branch of the
“black art” at the February Popular Meeting.
Mar
1896:
At
the March Popular Meeting, Mr H Snowdon Ward, the editor of The
Photogram gave a short exposition of “Shadowgraphs” or
what
are known as the “X” rays.
He and illustrated his remarks with
diagrams, and with one or two interesting experiments with a vacuum
tube.
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The
Cinematograph
In
March 1897, and again in
Feb 1898, slides shown by EPS Members
were grouped by subject, together with occasional
showings
of living pictures by means of the Cinematograph
under the
management of Mr Haddow.
It
was reported that this was
"in
order to relieve
the tedium which
a lantern display is apt to induce, however brilliant it may be."
In
1898 Popular Meetings, the cinematograph was more prominent, and showed animated views
of, among others, the Queen Victoria's Great Diamond Jubilee Procession.
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