Pencils of Light -- Early Scotland Photography Collection

You know, I've always liked Scotland, but suddenly it's become really cool. First the New York Times announces that you can get vegetarian haggis (apologies to haggis purists), and now the N*tional Library of Scotland (name slightly altered as the first word apparently trips sp*m filters) has put up yet another excellent online exhibition!

This time the collection is Pencils of Light ( http://www.nls.uk/pencilsoflight/index.html ), a collection of over 300 photographs from the Edinburgh Calotype Club, the first photographic club in the world. Some of these photographs are so difficult to view I don't why they're here except for historical completion, but many of them are amazing.

Okay. You can go through this collection in several different ways. You can browse an online representation of two photo albums (which I didn't find very satisfying) or you can browse by country, location, or photographer. You can also search by keyword.

A search for "castle" found 33 results. Results are presented as thumbnails, six to a page, with a brief caption underneath. Some of the pictures are very poor ( Loch Leven Castle) but some of them are amazing (the now-demolished Auldbar Castle, Forfarshire. Wow.) Click on the thumbnail for a larger picture and additional information about the photograph when available, including date, photographer, location, and dimensions. My only complaint about this collection is that the photographs aren't large enough to view detail, but this is a great browse all the same.

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