Electrifying Daguerreotypes
Rachel Nordstrom follows up here on her earlier post where she featured several of the daguerreotypes in the Library’s collections. Daguerreotypes are relatively rare in Scotland, and specifically so within the…
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Tribute to Dr Robert N Smart (1931-2019)
The Special Collections Division of the University Library is very sad to note the death of Dr Robert N Smart on 21 July 2019, aged 87. Born in Abernethy, Bob attended St Andrews from 1949-53, graduating with an MA in…
52 Weeks of Reading the Collections: Visual Index and Reflections
52 weeks of Reading the Collections has come to an end – thanks to everyone who contributed, read, and shared our posts over the past year! We’re ending the series with our traditional visual index: …
Contemporary Calotypists visit Special Collections to View Early Calotypes and Photographic Prints
This past week, Special Collections helped host the bi-annual meeting of The Calotype Society, a modern day take on the original photographic exchange circles that sprung up here in Scotland during the early days of…
Introducing this year’s blog theme: 52 weeks of Historical How-To’s!
Over the past couple of years we’ve had themes for weekly blog posts throughout the year, beginning with the very popular 52 Weeks of Fantastic Bindings, and followed by 52 Weeks of Inspiring Illustrations. While we…
52 Weeks of Inspiring Illustrations, Week 30: oil and water don’t mix — The Bromoil Print
A photo-mechanical process based on the principal of oil and water repelling each other, the bromoil print is, loosely speaking, a type of lithography. To start, a gelatin-silver bromide print (explaining the “Brom” in…
52 Weeks of Inspiring Illustrations, Week 22: the beauty of the photogravure
This week’s inspiring illustrations post is about a photo-mechanical process which I’ve always found to be one of the most evocative ways or reproducing photographs using the permanence of ink: the photogravure. These…
lux: Showing off the Photographic Collection on Tumblr
The Department of Special Collections of the University Library has a new Tumblr blog called “lux”. Its aim is to cater to those who will enjoy receiving a steady stream of images which illustrate the scope of our…
52 Weeks of Inspiring Illustrations, Week 11: Imbedded in the fibres: The Salted Paper Print
The first photographic print medium was known as the salted paper print and was invented by the English scientist William Henry Fox Talbot. Publicly announced in 1839 as a means of duplicating the photogenic drawing,…
52 Weeks of Fantastic Bindings, Week 50: a 19th century deluxe photographic album
This week’s binding feature focusses on an item from a collection that has not yet been discussed here: the Photographic Collection. St Andrews University Library holds one of the largest and most important collections…