{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2017}} {{Use British English|date=February 2017}} [[File:Staffa near Fingal's Cave (seated figure who might be John Muir Wood).jpg|thumbnail|[[John Muir Wood]], Staffa near [[Fingal's Cave]] (with seated figure who might be photographer), c. 1850]] The '''Edinburgh Calotype Club''' (1843 – c.1850s) of Scotland was the first photographic club in the world.<ref name=NLSalbum /> Its members consisted of pioneering photographers primarily from [[Edinburgh]] and [[St Andrews]]. The efforts of the Club's members resulted in the production of two of the world's earliest assembled photographic albums, consisting of more than 300 images.<ref name=NLSalbum>{{cite web|title=History|url=http://digital.nls.uk/pencilsoflight/history.htm|work=Pencils of Light: The Albums of the Edinburgh Calotype Club|publisher=National Library of Scotland|accessdate=2 November 2013}}</ref>
==Foundation== The group was formed after the introduction of [[Calotype|calotype photography]] to Edinburgh gentlemen by [[David Brewster]], then Principal of [[St Andrews University]], and also a close friend of the inventor of the calotype process, [[Henry Fox Talbot]]. Talbot sent Brewster examples of his work well before publishing on his findings, and it was Brewster who suggested that Talbot should only [[Patenting|patent]] his invention in England, and not Scotland, which eventually allowed for the club's formation.<ref name=DNBBrewster>{{cite ODNB|last=A.D.|first=Morrison-Low|title=Brewster, Sir David (1781–1868)|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/3371|year=2004|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/3371|accessdate=2 November 2013}}</ref>
Talbot sent Brewster examples of his calotype photography, but Brewster had to turn to a colleague at St Andrews, the Professor of Chemistry Dr [[John Adamson (chemist)|John Adamson]], in order to discover how to reproduce his friend's process.<ref name=Hundred>{{cite web|title=An Hundred Pictures in Calotype by Hill & Adamson|url=http://www.capitalcollections.org.uk/index.php?a=ViewItem&i=28299&WINID=1383391274924#aABPGqHKg8MAAAFCGIiFLA/28299|work=Capital Collections|publisher=Edinburgh Council|accessdate=2 November 2013}}</ref> Although John Adamson was the first person in Scotland to use calotype photography, it was his brother, [[Robert Adamson (photographer)|Robert]], who was to take up photography as a passion and a profession, eventually establishing the country's first photographic studio, [[Hill & Adamson]], with painter and pioneering photographer [[David Octavius Hill]].<ref name ="Hundred" />
A visit from [[James Montgomery (priest)|James Montgomery]], who was studying in Edinburgh to enter the [[Faculty of Advocates]], and a group of friends who were interested in Brewster's and John Adamson's reproduction of the calotype process, allegedly led to the formation of the Edinburgh Calotype Club itself.<ref name="NLSalbum" />
==Membership== [[File:David-Brewster.jpg|thumbnail|David Brewster (1781-1868), c. 1850s]] The membership of the Club was composed of professional gentlemen from a variety of backgrounds - including clerics, academics and physicians - in both Edinburgh and St Andrews. Meetings of the club are described as being generally informal, and retrospective on the Club from an 1874 edition of ''[[The British Journal of Photography]]'' states that had "neither laws, office-bearers, or formalities of any kind":<ref name=Reminiscence>{{cite book|title=The British Journal of Photography, Volume XXI|publisher=Henry Greenwood|location=London|page=385|url=https://archive.org/stream/britishjournalp01socigoog#page/n395/mode/2up|editor=J.T. Taylor|accessdate=2 November 2013|display-editors=etal}}</ref>
<blockquote>"The meetings were held periodically at the houses of the members alternately, and generally each took the form of a breakfast, although when some greater step than ordinary had been made in advance it was generally honoured by being introduced to the members at a formal dinner."<ref name ="Reminiscence" /></blockquote>
Despite the lack of records, the names of eight members have been traced, and the albums themselves include the names of five members as well as a number of associates.<ref name="NLSalbum" />
===Notable members=== The club's membership included many notable figures of the time, particularly from Edinburgh and St Andrews, including: :* John Adamson (1810-1870), doctor and chemist in [[St Andrews]] :* [[David Brewster]] (1781-1868), Scottish physicist, mathematician, astronomer, inventor, and writer :* [[John Cay]] (1790-1865), advocate :* [[Cosmo Innes]] (1798-1874), Scottish historian and antiquary :* [[James Calder Macphail]] (1821-1908), minister :* [[James Francis Montgomery|James Montgomery]] (1818-1897), advocate and Episcopalian clergyman :* [[Mark Napier (historian)|Mark Napier]] (1798-1879), historian :* [[Hugh Lyon Playfair]] (1786-1861), Provost of [[St Andrews]] :* [[Henry Fox Talbot]] (1800-1877), inventor and pioneer of photography :* [[George Moir]] (1800-1870), advocate and author :* [[Robert Tennent (photographer)|Robert Tennent]] (1813-1890) and his younger brother [[Hugh Lyon Tennent]] (1817-1874)<ref name="NLSalbum" />
==Dissolution== The Edinburgh Calotype Club continued meeting until sometime in the 1850s; although the exact date when it ceased to exist is not known, curators at the [[National Library of Scotland]] suggest that it was likely around the mid 1850s, "when the albumen and collodion processes superseded the calotype... The Edinburgh Calotype Club had, in a sense, outlived its usefulness."<ref name="NLSalbum" /> The development of newer photographic technologies meant that photography was opened to a wider audience, and "spread like wildfire over the country."<ref name="Reminiscence" />
Some members of the Club, in particular David Brewster, George Moir and Cosmo Innes, went on to become active in the later [[Photographic Society of Scotland]] that was founded in 1856. Brewster became the President of the Photographic Society of Scotland, Moir one of its two vice presidents, and Innes a council member.<ref>{{cite web|last=Stubbs|first=Peter|title=PSS History|url=http://www.edinphoto.org.uk/3/3_pss_history_1856_mar.htm|work=Edinphoto.org.uk|accessdate=2 November 2013}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * [https://web.archive.org/web/20100109044301/http://www.nls.uk/pencilsoflight/history.htm Albums of the Edinburgh Calotype Club] digital gallery from the [[National Library of Scotland]]
[[Category:Organisations based in Edinburgh]] [[Category:Photography organisations based in Scotland]] [[Category:Photography organizations established in the 19th century]] [[Category:History of photography]] [[Category:Pioneers of photography]] [[Category:Culture in Edinburgh]] [[Category:1843 establishments in Scotland]] [[Category:1850s disestablishments in Scotland]] [[Category:Culture in Fife]] [[Category:Clubs and societies in Edinburgh]]