John Adamson (physician)

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Dr. John Adamson (1809–1870) was a Scottish physician, pioneer photographer, physicist, lecturer and museum curator. He was a highly respected figure in St Andrews, and was responsible for producing the first calotype portrait in Scotland in 1841. He taught the process to his brother, the famous pioneering photographer Robert Adamson. He was curator of the Literary and Philosophical Society Museum at St. Andrews from 1838 until his death.

Biography

Adamson was born in St Andrews, and grew up in Burnside, the son of Alexander Adamson, a Fife farmer and his wife, Rachael Melville.

Adamson was educated in the University of St Andrews and University of Edinburgh, graduating with a diploma in Surgery in 1829. He moved to Paris, where he opened up a practice and was then employed as a ship's surgeon on a voyage to China. He returned to St Andrews in 1835, where he set up practice permanently. Adamson became heavily involved with Brewster at the university, studying the calotype and also became a lecturer and curator of the university museum. The older brother of pioneering photographer Robert Adamson, it was John who produced the first calotype portrait in Scotland at the Royal Museum in Edinburgh in May 1841 (various sources also say May 1840 or May 1842), with his close associate, physicist David Brewster of the University of St Andrews. Adamson "discovered how to control a process that remained remarkably difficult." John was also responsible for educating Robert in the process which he later used to produce some 2500 calotypes with David Octavius Hill between 1843 and 1848. Through Brewster, Adamson was in close contact with Henry Fox Talbot who invented the process. He obtained a Master's Degree in 1843. He was also a member and the curator of the St Andrews Literary and Philosophical Society museum from 1838 until his death.

There is a blue plaque in his honour on his home at 127 South Street in St Andrews, where he lived from 1848 to 1865. It says "He was a physician and pioneer photographer. In 1841 he took the first caloptype portrait. He also taught his brother Robert and Thomas Rodger the technique and art of photography. A town councillor, he was a tireless worker for public health, and the hospital here is, in part, his memorial." His home became the main post office of St Andrews from 1907, but in 2012 it was converted into a restaurant, named The Adamson.