'Scotland's photograph album' goes on display

Forth Bridge under construction — Image caption Forth Bridge, 1888

Photographs from what was once thought to be the largest privately-held collection in Scotland are going on display to the public.

The MacKinnon Collection, which contains more than 14,000 images, was bought by the National Library of Scotland (NLS) and the National Galleries of Scotland (NGS) for £1m in 2018.

The pictures, which date from the earliest days of photography in the 1840s through to the 1940s, are being shown in an exhibition at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh called Scotland's photograph album.

It includes family portraits, working life, street scenes, sporting pursuits, shops, trams, tenements, mountains and monuments.

Ferry boat — Image caption Ferry Boat at Kyle of Lochalsh, 1870s-1880s

Another exhibition at the National Library of Scotland - called 'At the Water's Edge' - looks at photographs from the collection which show Scotland's coasts and waterways.

The display was put together by photography enthusiast Murray MacKinnon, who established a successful chain of film-processing stores in the 1980s, starting from his pharmacy in Dyce, near Aberdeen.

He published a book of highlights from his collection in 2013, shortly before he sold it on to a private buyer.

It includes many of the pioneers of photography such as William Henry Fox Talbot, David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson as well as Julia Margaret Cameron, Thomas Annan, Roger Fenton and George Washington Wilson.