This is a first quality Victorian family photograph album of the family of Eliza Murphy, daughter of Calvert Toulmin who was a shipowner holding the monopoly of postal carriage to Australia.
In addition to 196 'carte de visite' photographs of family members including Calvert Toulmin, of holiday destinations and of sentimental group poses, the album contains 57 photographs of Russian tradesmen and street vendors taken by William Carrick.
William Carrick, son of a timber merchant, was born in Edinburgh on 31 December 1827. While still an infant, his family moved to the port of Kronstadt on the Gulf of Finland.In 1844 they moved to nearby St. Petersburg where William began studies in architecture at the Academy of Arts. In 1853 he continued his studies in Rome, but in 1856 he returned to St. Petersburg to become a photographer.
He visited Edinburgh in order to gain more experience in the art and met photographic technician John MacGregor. Both men then went to St. Petersburg to establish a photographic studio. He soon made a name for himself capturing moments in Russian life, and became a pioneer of Russian photo-ethnography. Carrick and MacGregor made several rural expeditions, including in 1871 a month long trip to Simbirsk province.
In 1876, he became the photographer of the Academy of Arts where he obtained a studio. An exhibition of his work had been put on in St. Petersburg in 1869 and this had been followed by one in London (1876), and in Paris (1878).
William Carrick died of pneumonia in St. Petersburg in 1878.
Open to bona fide researchers, but please contact repository for details in advance of visit.
Accession no: E2011.27.
Compiled by Graeme D. Eddie, Edinburgh University Library, Special Collections.
