Edinburgh Ale
This image is an absolute killer...
James Ballantine (stained glass artist and writer), Dr George William Bell (physician and social reformer) and one half of pioneering Scottish photographic team, David Octavius Hill (of Hill and Adamson, of course), smiling away bathed in natural light, almost as if he just jumped into the frame at the last second.
This calotype, titled 'Edinburgh Ale', is currently in the hands of the National Portrait Gallery, and was taken somewhere around the mid 1840s.
Authentic, light-filled, relatable, timeless...it's certainly an onerous task if one had to select a favourite of H & A, but this would be a contender for me, along with the Newhaven portraits...
Words: The Daguerreian Dandy.
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Contributed by
JOSE M LOPEZ
February 7, 2026
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