Gift to Edinburgh Photographic Society
reported at the EPS Annual General Meeting 1901

Calotypes by

D O Hill

and others

 

Extract from 'Snap-Shots' in the journal

Photography

June 13, 1903

 

Edinburgh Photographic Society

The Annual General Meeting of the Edinburgh Photographic Society was held on 3rd inst.  The report by the Council shows a very satisfactory state of affairs, notwithstanding a slight decrease in membership.

The society has received a gift of between three and four hundred paper negatives, mostly by the late Mr D O Hill, made about sixty years ago, illustrating Edinburgh and its inhabitants at that period.

Many buildings long since swept away are shown, and not of the least interesting are the figure studies which showed the fashions in clothes and headgear of the day.

Photography, 13 June, 1903, p.571
with acknowledgement to Ron Cosens for alerting me to this snippet.

 

EPS Collection of Photos

The article in 'Photography' above does not say who donated the D O Hill Calotypes to EPS.  Perhaps the EPS Minutes for 1902-03 (now held by The Edinburgh Room at Edinburgh Central Library will give the name of the donor.

Edinburgh Photographic Society retained these 'Hill & Adamson' calotypes for almost a century, holding them in their own premises, but then passed them on, as a permanent loan (along with other photos from the EPS Collection) to the Scottish National Portrait Gallery for safekeeping around the 1990s.

The Scottish National Portrait Gallery subsequently staged an exhibition at their gallery featuring a selection of the D O Hill calotypes. 

The fashions referred to in the article in Photography are probably those of the fishwives of Newhaven, a small fishing village about two miles to the north of Edinburgh, rather than fashions that would have been worn generally in Edinburgh in the 1840s.

Bust of D O Hill

A bust of D O Hill has been a prominent feature in the Entrance Hall of the EPS premises for as long as any of the existing members can remember.  Can anybody tell me where this bust came from.  Was it also a donation to EPS?

Edinburgh Photographic Society Premises at 68 Great King Street - Bust of DO Hill in the Hall ©             Bust of DO Hill, at EPS Premises, 68 Great King Street - Where did it come from and when? ©

It looks similar to the bust on D O Hill's gravestone at Dean Cemetery, Edinburgh.  (D O Hill was born 1802 and died 1878.)

A Group of Delegates from the DO Hill Bicentenary Conference DO Hill's Grave on 20 May 2002, the bicentenary of his birth. ©

I've browsed through the handwritten minutes of EPS Meetings (1866 to 2000) most of which are now held by the Edinburgh Room at Edinburgh Central Library, but have not found an answer to this question.

Peter Stubbs, Edinburgh:  April 15, 2015

 

 

Extract from 'Snap-Shots' in the journal

Photography

June 13, 1903

 

Edinburgh Photographic Society

The Annual General Meeting of the Edinburgh Photographic Society was held on 3rd inst.  The report by the Council shows a very satisfactory state of affairs, notwithstanding a slight decrease in membership.

The society has received a gift of between three and four hundred paper negatives, mostly by the late Mr D O Hill, made about sixty years ago, illustrating Edinburgh and its inhabitants at that period.

Many buildings long since swept away are shown, and not of the least interesting are the figure studies which showed the fashions in clothes and headgear of the day.

Photography, 13 June, 1903, p.571
with acknowledgement to Ron Cosens for alerting me to this snippet.

 

EPS Collection of Photos

The article in 'Photography' above does not say who donated the D O Hill Calotypes to EPS.  Perhaps the EPS Minutes for 1902-03 (now held by The Edinburgh Room at Edinburgh Central Library will give the name of the donor.

Edinburgh Photographic Society retained these 'Hill & Adamson' calotypes for almost a century, holding them in their own premises, but then passed them on, as a permanent loan (along with other photos from the EPS Collection) to the Scottish National Portrait Gallery for safekeeping around the 1990s.

The Scottish National Portrait Gallery subsequently staged an exhibition at their gallery featuring a selection of the D O Hill calotypes. 

The fashions referred to in the article in Photography are probably those of the fishwives of Newhaven, a small fishing village about two miles to the north of Edinburgh, rather than fashions that would have been worn generally in Edinburgh in the 1840s.

Bust of D O Hill

A bust of D O Hill has been a prominent feature in the Entrance Hall of the EPS premises for as long as any of the existing members can remember.  Can anybody tell me where this bust came from.  Was it also a donation to EPS?

Edinburgh Photographic Society Premises at 68 Great King Street - Bust of DO Hill in the Hall ©             Bust of DO Hill, at EPS Premises, 68 Great King Street - Where did it come from and when? ©

It looks similar to the bust on D O Hill's gravestone at Dean Cemetery, Edinburgh.  (D O Hill was born 1802 and died 1878.)

A Group of Delegates from the DO Hill Bicentenary Conference DO Hill's Grave on 20 May 2002, the bicentenary of his birth. ©

I've browsed through the handwritten minutes of EPS Meetings (1866 to 2000) most of which are now held by the Edinburgh Room at Edinburgh Central Library, but have not found an answer to this question.

Peter Stubbs, Edinburgh:  April 15, 2015

 

 

Reply

1.

Allan Dodds

Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, England

Allan Dodds replied:

D O Hill Busts

"I don't know what the relationship of the EPS bust of Hill is to the one on his grave but my guess is that the EPS one is a copy of the original.  It is much less lifelike and slightly more stylised. Hill's eyes are almost closed in the EPS one whereas they are open and the face is more animated in the bronze.

I'm surprised that the Minutes don't record detail of the EPS one."

Allan Dodds, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, England  April 17, 2015

Here are photos of the two busts that Allan refers to above.

Photo

1.

D O Hill Bust

Dean Cemetery

DO Hill's Grave on 20 May 2002, the bicentenary of his birth

© peter.stubbs@edinphoto.org.uk   Photo: May 20, 2002

Photo

2.

D O Hill Bust

Edinburgh Photographic Society Premises

Bust of DO Hill, at EPS Premises, 68 Great King Street - Where did it come from and when?

© peter.stubbs@edinphoto.org.uk                                          Photo taken  June 23, 2012

EPS Minutes

Alan: 

Please don't read anything into my comment that I did not find any reference to the donation of the second bust to Edinburgh Photographic Society when I looked through the EPS Minutes.  I expect the donation will be recorded somewhere there,

There are several hundred (or thousand?) pages of handwritten minutes,  without an index, so it's  not always easy to find an item.  I may look again, some time, concentrating on the couple of years after the death of D O Hill. 

Peter Stubbs, Edinburgh:  April 19, 2015

 

 

 

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