Photographic Collections

Dating from the 1850s, the collections feature some of the earliest photographs ever taken of Scotland, through to the work of RCAHMS photographers and investigators up to the present day.

The collection includes:

• Historic photographic collections including photographers such as
  • John Forbes White (1831–1904)
  • William Donaldson Clerk (1813–1873)
  • Harry Bedford Lemere (1864–1944)
  • Erskine Beveridge (1851–1920)
  • James Bannatyne Mackenzie (1833–1920)
• Photographs from architects firms, engineering firms and other companies showing buildings during construction, or sometimes before alterations. These photographs can be a valuable accompaniment to our collections of architects' drawings
• Images of buildings and monuments taken during RCAHMS surveys, as well as photographs taken during external surveys, from gravestone recording to coastal erosion surveys
• Excavation photographs, providing a vivid record of what was found by the archaeologists as well as the people, methods and technology involved in the work
• Photographs taken for Country Life
• Albums and postcards
• Oblique aerial photography taken as part of RCAHMS survey programme from 1976 to the present day
• Oblique and vertical aerial photography taken by the RAF, Ordnance Survey and others from the 1940s to the recent past