The Scots: A Photohistory

Following its invention in 1839, a craze for photography ripped through Scotland, and over the next 100 years Scottish photographers captured an impressive visual record of their land and its people, their mixed fortunes, hopes and aspirations. Their achievements document a century of profound contrasts, of division, upheaval and change that recast forever the character of Scotland. This volume presents the triumphs of a self-confident Scotland – the completion of the Forth Bridge and the stream of vessels that slid down the slipways of the Clyde to bind together a far-flung empire – but also its injustices, the story of the rural and urban poor, and the Clearances that drove people from the land to seek work in the cities or new hope in emigration to the New World.Gordon Highlanders drinking whisky from enamel buckets in the New Year celebrations of 1890; the caves of Staffa and their association with the mythical Celtic hero, Finigal; the grandeur of Edinburgh Catle; a portrait of John Logie Baird, Scottish scientist-hero and inventor of the television; the golfers of Scotscraig a mere decade after the invention of photography; or salmon fishing in the Ness Islands – this visual history brings the country to life not only for those of Scottish descent but for everyone who has enjoyed the rich character and landscape of this nation.