Orkney from Old Photographs
by Gordon Wright

Back in print, after more than 20 years, is this collection of historic Orkney photographs taken by leading photographers of their day, Tom Kent, George Ellison, Willie Hourston, David “Porky” Horne, William Hugh Wood and Robert Heddle Robertson, as well as by many unknown photographers.

The introduction by Bryce Wilson, then Museums Officer for Orkney, explains how being photographed became a popular event in Orkney within 34 years of the first prints being made in France by a lithographer and inventor.

“By the 1860s, Orcadians were having their portraits taken. Long the preserve of the upper classes who could afford the services of portrait painters, this was made widely available in the mid-19th century through photography, especially the cheap ‘ambrotype’.

“The process involved no printing. The glass negative, with a little colour tinting to the cheeks and the clothing of the sitter, was given a black background of paper, paint or even soot to render a positive image.

“It was enclosed behind glass with a pretty frame of thin gilt brass, then placed in a wooden velvet-lined case covered in imitation tooled leather.”

Relaxing by the Ring of Brodgar, Stenness, is one of those by unknown photographers. All but one of the party are lying or sitting on the grass. One man is perched high above them on top of one of the stones.

Then there is the shot of Sandwick Post Office in 1900, which appears to have had a large staff of four postmen, a postmistress and one other man not in uniform — could he have worked in the sorting office?

The 1908 Dounby Show features. A “society palmist” had her tent open and ready for business. Helpful if you want to know the results of the stock judging in advance, perhaps.

Judging by the heavy coats being worn, it was a very cool August day.

Why is there a tree in Albert Street, Kirkwall?

The answer from an old picture is that it wasn’t always in the street. It was in a private garden and when the council wanted to widen the street the conditions of sale of the garden stipulated that one tree should be retained. In 1889 it was a very fine specimen.

The 195 illustrations are a remarkable record, bringing to life almost every aspect of daily work and toil in the islands, including transport within and to the islands, from the first buses to the first motorcycle and two-seater sidecar, and a mid-1930s Aberdeen Airways Dragon which used the grass airstrip at Cumminess near the Brig o’Waithe.

The herring boom, which brought prosperity to the islands, and the gradual mechanisation of farming, are illustrated too, with the old photographs able to convey better than words, what it was like to live here “in the good old days.”

Anyone who missed this fascinating book the first time round should get a copy now while it is still available.

AH