This talk by Ian Leith of the Wick Society will look at the Johnston Collection, a unique photographic archive which provides an insight into more than a century of life in and around Wick, from 1863 to 1976.Three generations of the Johnston family ran a photography business in Caithness which documented its social history, from the time the herring industry was at its height and Wick the herring capital of Europe. They captured the bustling harbour activity, the Kildonan gold rush, took portraits of boys before they left for the trenches of World War One, and recorded the agriculture, trades, customs, sports, weddings, events and people of Caithness. When the last of the photographers retired he passed the negatives and equipment into the care of the Wick Society and today over 40,000 glass plate negatives are preserved in the Wick Heritage Museum and digitised and available online for the global community to enjoy.
The presentation is introduced by Gilly Read FRPS, chair of the RPS Historical Group.