Views of Portree

Views of Portree

These views of Portree, Scotland, are reproduced by collotype, a photomechanical process developed in the mid-nineteenth century that allowed photographic negatives to be printed with ink on paper. Collotypes provided a way to print photographs within the pages of books alongside text, instead of pasting in individual photographs, but it was a laborious and expensive process.

The photographs collected in Views of Portree provide a souvenir of this place and contribute to the “imagined geographies” of Portree—much like the album CPR 1887 contributes to the imagined geography of Canada. Notice, too, the similarities between these views of Portree and Gilpin’s picturesque drawings from a century earlier.

This album is one of the many souvenir books included in this exhibition.

Valentine & Sons (photographer)

[1890]
15.0 x 19.5 cm
DA 880 S6 V54 1890