The Aberdeenshire pharmacist Murray MacKinnon began acquiring early Scottish photographs in the 1980s; his collection, which has been acquired jointly by the National Galleries of Scotland and the National Library of Scotland, ranges from amateur photographers to well-known Victorian practitioners of the medium such as William Henry Fox Talbot, Julia Margaret Cameron and Thomas Annan. This selection of around 100 charts the history of Scottish life from 1840 to 1940. Find out more from the Scottish National Portrait Gallery’s website.
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Forth Bridge (1888), George Washington Wilson

A Peat Carrier, Lerwick (1880s), James Valentine

Close No. 37, High Street (1860s), Thomas Annan

Newhaven Fishwife (1860s), W.K. Munro
An everyday luxury – the artists finding beauty in banality