Contextualising, analysing and cataloguing the glass negatives from Rock House in the Dougan Collection of the Special Collections Department, University of Glasgow Library

Simpson, Roderick Duff (2013) Contextualising, analysing and cataloguing the glass negatives from Rock House in the Dougan Collection of the Special Collections Department, University of Glasgow Library. MPhil(R) thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

Among the items that came to the University of Glasgow Library in 1953 from Robert O. Dougan were twenty-three boxes of glass negatives. While much work has been done on other items that came from Dougan, which includes much outstanding material of early Scottish photography, little has been done with the glass negatives.

These glass negatives are the purpose of this thesis and to provide the basic context there is a description of the life and career of Robert O. Dougan and his collecting of historic photographic material and how the Dougan Collection came to the University of Glasgow Library. The twenty-three boxes of glass negatives were bought by Dougan from Rock House, Edinburgh, in the 1940s. This had been the studio of the pioneering Scottish Photographers, David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson in the 1840s and had continued to be used by successive photographers until the 1940s. Much of what comprises the Dougan Collection came from Rock House.

To provide the historical context, the use of Rock House as a photographic studio, from Hill and Adamson’s time to the last main photographer there, Francis Caird Inglis, will be described. The glass negatives also link Hill and Adamson and Inglis because it was the latter who made them and most of the negatives are copies of Hill and Adamson photographs.

There will be a full catalogue of the total of 328 glass negatives with positive images of each for the first time and the content analysed. The catalogue cross references the Hill and Adamson images to major collections of their work and in particular the University of Glasgow Library and the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. The circumstances of why and when the negatives were made and for what purpose will be investigated and there will be an indication of the sources of the photographs copied in the glass negatives. In conclusion any images that may only be known to survive because they were copied in the glass negatives will be highlighted.

• Item Type: Thesis (MPhil(R))
• Qualification Level: Masters
• Keywords: Photography, Scottish, History of Photography, Glass Negatives, Hill and Adamson, Robert O Dougan, Francis Caird Inglis, Rock House, Archibald Burns, Thomas Annan, Calotype Negatives, Salt Prints, University of Glasgow Library.
• Subjects: N Fine Arts > N Visual arts (General) For photography, see TR; T Technology > TR Photography
• Colleges/Schools: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Culture and Creative Arts
• Supervisor's Name: Pearce, Professor Nick
• Date of Award: 2013
• Depositing User: Mr Roderick Simpson
• Unique ID: glathesis:2013-4583
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 31 Oct 2013 10:05
• Last Modified: 31 Oct 2013 15:51
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/4583

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