This is the first book to provide a full and coherent introduction to the photography of Victorian Scotland. There are many books which deal with particular elements and individual photographers, which show the interest in the subject, but no book draws everything together to provide an understanding of the multi-faceted nature of photography and the inter-relationship with other activities in the society of the time. This authoritative introduction, building upon these other publications, will provide a wide-ranging appreciation of early Scottish photography and in particular that Scottish photography was in the vanguard of many international trends. The material has been structured and the topics organised, with appropriate illustrations, as both a readable narrative and a foundation text for the subject.

The dawning of an age Chauncy Hare Townshend, eyewitness -- The daguerreotype : a new wonder -- The calotype era -- The circle of William Henry Fox Talbot -- Picturesque Britain and the industrial age -- Roger Fenton and the making of a photographic establishment -- The grand tour -- High art photography : in search of an ideal -- Exploring the empire -- Aristocratic amateurs -- Julia Margaret Cameron : Christian pictorialist -- Street life -- The art of photography : fulfilling the vision -- Peter Henry Emerson : art and solitude -- James Craig Annan : brave days in Glasgow -- Paul Martin and the modern era.

Invented during a period of anxiety about the ability of human memory to cope with the demands of expanding knowledge, photography not only changed the way the Victorians saw the world, but also provided them with a new sense of connection with the past and a developing language with which to describe it. Analysing a broad range of texts by inventors, cultural critics, photographers, and novelists, Victorian Photography, Literature, and the Invention of Modern Memory: Already the Past argues that Victorian photography ultimately defined the concept of memory for generations to come –including our own. In addition to being invaluable for scholars working within the emerging field of research at the intersection of photographic and literary studies, this book will also be of interest to students of Victorian and modernist literature, visual culture and intellectual history.

"Conceived with the eye and mind of an artist, Thomas Keith's photographs do much more than merely show us what Scotland looked like over a century ago. They form an entirely personal account of the country in terms of both its architecture and atmosphere. The quality and technical excellence of these beautiful pictures deny their great age."--Page 4 de la couverture.