Recognition of the importance of photographic materials for many areas of academic study has grown enormously in the last few years, and the use of photography by other sectors of the community, including the general populace, has similarly contributed to an enormous increase in the demand for access to photographic collections.
The Universities of Aberdeen, Dundee and St Andrews have between them a colossal pictorial resource. Their principal collections between them offer c.475,000 images, covering a wide variety of subject matters - local, national and international. In addition, all three universities have other smaller collections which further increase the size, importance and diversity of the resource.
The George Washington Wilson collection comprises 40,000 negatives spanning the period 1859-1908, which offer a superb topographical record of the UK (but also include material relating to colonial Australia and South Africa, and the western Mediterranean coast). It is also a rich record of urban and rural growth, industrialisation, transportation and many elements of social history. Further collections held by the University complement the GWW archive with many more photographs of Scotland, and particularly north-east Scotland - its landscape, buildings and archaeology.
Michael Peto came to Britain from Hungary in 1939. He was a freelance journalist with the Observer newspaper, and travelled extensively, covering the work of the Save the Children Fund around the world. Other aspects of his work involved the arts, especially the London ballet scene. Major topics covered by the collection (which consists of some 130,000 items) thus include Eastern Europe, Israel, India, ballet and theatre and Scotland, as well as leading political, literary and entertainment figures.
St Andrews’ contribution to the project is drawn from the Valentine Collection (the surviving image archive of the 19th century company which later became one of the largest publishers of picture postcards in the world), the Robert Moyes Adam collection (which concentrates largely on rural Scotland - its landscape and people, c.1900-1950), and the George Cowie collection (the work of a freelance journalist based in St Andrews c.1930-1980 whose c.60,000 negatives document all aspects of life in north-east Fife and its role in national events during a highly significant fifty-year period, and also contains an astounding golfing archive). St Andrews has many other smaller collections (both historic and modern) of local, national and international range. The collection of very early photography (1840-c.1870) is one of the finest in the world.
The accessibility of the images in these collections varies, but the primary access points for all of them are still hard-copy indices which are in essence limited, and available ony locally. Scholars have therefore to travel to consult the collections, have to rely on inadequate indices to identify the images they want, and have frequently to view them using the fragile originals, which are therefore subject to regular, and damaging, handling and light exposure.
The project thus aims to extend the digitisation programmes of the participating institutions, and to generate a searchable database description of the digitised images. The collaboration of three major holding institutions in such a project will offer the academic and public communities a digital image resource unrivalled in Scotland, and possibly in the UK. Each of the Universities will have their own website, offering access to their own image collections. In addition it is hoped that the ‘Visual Evidence’ website will eventually be able to provide a ‘seamless search’ across all three databases.
To date (April 2002) the scanning of the almost 100,000 images funded by the project is complete, the individual websites have been launched, and a prototype overarching website is available. The creation of the text database is well advanced.
University of Aberdeen Historic Collections
Dundee University Archives
St Andrews University Library (Lead Institution)
websites:
http://specialcollections.st-and.ac.uk/projphotos.htm
http://www.dundee.ac.uk/archives/photocolls.htm
www.visual-evidence.ac.uk/aberdeen/controller
Project Manager
Dr Norman H. ReidTel: 01334 462339
Fax: 01334 462282
E-mail: norman.reid@st-and.ac.uk
Content: Gill Davenport
Last updated 9 July 2002