George Washington Wilson

This morning Mrs T. and I  had to go into Aberdeen for the first time in many weeks. One good thing about the Covid is that we easily found somewhere to park!
Whilst Mrs T went about her business I had a wander about and found myself outside this very stylish family house (now a Virgin Money Bank) with an interesting photographic connection.
The house was the home of George Washington Wilson (1823-1893). Born in the North East of Scotland, he went to Edinburgh and then London in the 1840s to train as a portrait miniaturist. He became established in Aberdeen in the 1850s as an artist and photographer, and quickly made a name for himself among the middle classes and landed gentry. His patronage by the Royal Family during their visits to the Balmoral Estates began in 1854 when he was invited to take photographs of the Royal family in the grounds of Balmoral. He received the official appointment of Photographer Royal for Scotland in 1860 and his relationship with the Royal family continued throughout his career. Wilson’s success allowed him to employ staff photographers to carry out the routine portraiture business whilst he travelled the country indulging in his new interest in landscape photography.
The University of Aberdeen own a collection of over 37,000 glass plate negatives, produced by the Aberdeen firm between the second half of the nineteenth century and the early twentieth century.
The entire collection of ‘George Washington Wilson and Company’ glass plate negatives is available digitally on the University website. Each high resolution image provides a superb level of detail and the collection is fully searchable here