The Signet Library 200th Anniversary Online Exhibition

signet library collection guides

the thomas annan collection of early photography

1. The works of horatio macculloch (1872)

Scottish Landscape. The Works of Horatio Macculloch ... photographed by T. Annan, [and described] with a sketch of his life [by Alexander Fraser] Edinburgh: Andrew Elliot, 1872

The earliest of the Signet Library's Annan volumes is a volume of photographs of the works of the landscape artist Horatio McCulloch (whose works were engraved by William Miller). A photographic portrait of McCulloch is tipped in, which may also be Annan's work. This was a work of memorial - McCulloch had died in 1867, and his wife died not long after on the ship carrying her to a new life in Australia. McCulloch was one of the great artistic creators of the romantic Victorian view of the Scottish Highlands, and earlier in life he had been himself photographed by Scottish pioneers Adamson and Hill.