University of Glasgow

UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

 
Part of the Library and University Services

Dougan Collection

 

image displayed here shows the Adamson Family: HA0336

This collection consists of what may be described as the incunabula of photography. Covering the period c 1843 to 1860, it is largely devoted to the work of David Octavius Hill. The collection includes 493 paper negatives, 324 glass negatives, 411 original calotypes and 459 later prints. It is accompanied by 107 bound volumes, including over 20 albums containing examples of the work of many of the pioneers of photography. The collection was purchased in 1953 from Robert O Dougan, then Deputy Librarian of Trinity College, Dublin, and subsequently Librarian of the Huntington Library, California.

Additions are made to the collection whenever possible. Items which were not part of Dougan's original collection are assigned a Dougan Add call number.

Please note that access to original photographic material is now strictly by appointment only and requires advance (a minimum of 24 hours) notice. Please contact the Special Collections Reading Room: 0141 330 6767 or special@lib.gla.ac.uk

See also the Hill & Adamson pages for an introduction to the dedicated online illustrated catalogue of the important collection of early photographs produced by the partnership of David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson

Finding aids and descriptions

  • The records for the bound volumes and albums have been added to the main Library catalogue: browse through a list of titles
  • Unpublished typescript inventory of negatives and prints.
  • Catalogue of an exhibition of the works of David Octavius Hill, RSA, in the Hunterian Museum [University of Glasgow], 11 May - 5 June, 1954 (Glasgow, 1954).
  • Correspondence relating to the acquisition of the collection: MS Gen 1585(a) and 1585(b)
  • Margaret F. MacDonald, Sun pictures and other historic photographs (Glasgow, 1983). Exhibition catalogue.
  • List of the books in the Dougan collection sorted in alphabetical order by author.  Compiled by Willie Johnston.
  • List of the books in the Dougan collection sorted in chronological order.  Compiled by Willie Johnston.
  • List of the albums, boxes and folders in the Dougan collection sorted in chronological order. Compiled by Willie Johnston.

See also the March 2003 'book of the month' article, featuring Photographs of a Baltic Cruise (Sp Coll Dougan Add. 9)