208
William Holland Furlong and Hugh Lyon Playfair. In
The Home Life of Sir David Brewster, a memoir of her
father, Margaret Gordon records that Henry practised
photography under his father’s “superintendence.” “It
was one of [Sir David’s] means of relaxation from
heavier work,” she recalls, “to take positives from the
negatives of his son and others.”
A letter of 22 October 1842 from Sir David to Talbot
suggests that Captain Brewster played an important role
in the early development of photography at St Andrews.
In additon, this letter establishes that Brewster continued
to practise photography after rejoining his regiment in
Ireland. Sir David informs Talbot that his son, “who
has got a fi ne camera from [Thomas] Davidson is now
practising the Calotype with great success at Cork with
his Regiment and I hope to send you soon some of his
works.” He mentions also that he himself had been very
busy in the “secondary department” of taking positives
from his son’s negatives and that he had made “some
essential improvements” in the process. Sir David goes
on to mention Henry’s “many successful experiments
in applying oil to the negatives.” “We have all tried
this here,” he continues, “ but not successfully.” “He,
however, got into the way of doing it; and independent
of the quickness with which it gives a positive in the
darkest day, he fi nds that the grain of the tint is much
fi ner, resembling the fi nest aquatints. There is great risk,
however, of spoiling the negative, and he lost several
before he succeeeded.” Sir David concludes: “I regret
that I cannot send you two of himself which my son and
I took, he being the manipulator; because one of these
has been thought by Dr Adamson and Major Playfair
the best portrait done here, but I will desire him to send
you them.”
In a subsequent letter to Talbot, written on 2 Novem-
ber, Sir David writes: “Dr Adamson was here today with
his little book of Calotype Gems for you, but he still
requires to get a good positive of one of me before he
can send it. What is the strength of your saline solution
...? Do you dip the paper in the solution or wash it? And
do you dry it in blotting paper, and is this blotting paper
always new? Be so good as to answer these questions.”
“My son writes me,” he reports, “that he never fails in
taking positives, by dipping in the solution.” Six months
later, on 1 May 1843, Sir David exhibited two series of
calotype portraits at a meeting of the St Andrews Liter-
ary and Philosophical Society, “the one executed by Mr
Henry Collen, London, and the other by Capt. Brewster
76th Regiment.” Eight days after this meeting, he men-
tions his son once more in yet another letter to Talbot,
writing: “My son Captain Brewster of the 76th has gone
with his regiment to Plymouth; and he has been told that
it is not lawful for him to practise the art in England....
I therefore promised to write to you to ask permission
for him to Calotype for his amuseument.” This is the last
reference in Sir David’s correspondence with Talbot to
the photographic activities of Captain Brewster.
A self-portrait by Captain Brewster is preserved in
the Graphic Arts Collection at Princeton University.
This is presumably one of the portraits mentioned by Sir
David in the aforementioned letter of 22 October 1842.
Contemporaneous with this photograph is a portrait of
Dr John Adamson, dated September 1842. This exists
in several versions, including one in the Royal Museum
of Scotland in Edinburgh. The principal collection of
photographs by Captain Brewster is contained in the
Brewster Album in the J. Paul Getty Museum. This
group contains ten portraits of Brewster’s fellow offi cers
in the 76th Regiment of Foot and several architectural
views depicting their barracks at Cork and at Buttevant.
The portraits exemplify military bravado and discipline
in equal measure, while the architectural views show a
complex and sophisticated approach to light, space, and
surface. In one of the views of Buttevant Barracks there
appears to be snow on the ground and on the roofs of
the buildings. The majority of these photographs must
have been taken between October 1842, when Captain
Brewster rejoined his regiment, and 1 May 1843, when
Sir David exhibited them at the St Andrews Literary
and Philosophical Society. The uniform worn by Wil-
liam Hugh Barton in one of these photographs suggests,
however, that it must date after 6 October 1843, when
Barton was promoted to Lieutenant. Also in the Brewster
Album is an unattributed group portrait, in which Sir
David appears with his daughter and with his son Henry,
the photographer. This photograph was probably taken
in St Andrews in 1845, when the 76th Regiment of Foot
was stationed at Edinburgh.
Graham SmithBiography
Henry Craigie Brewster was born in Edinburgh in 1816.
An obituary published in The Times on 21 September
1905 records that he died at the Marine Hotel, North
Berwick. “He was an enthusiastic golfer,” remarked
his obituarist, “and had a wide circle of friends, both
in England and Scotland.” The obituary records that
Brewster formerly commanded the 76th “Hindoostan”
Regiment of Foot and retired in 1872 without having
seen war service. Brewster joined the 76th on 18 October
1833, his seventeenth birthday. His record shows that
he was promoted to Lieutenant in 1836, to Captain in
1839, and to Major in 1858. He was appointed Lieuten-
ant Colonel in 1863 and retired with the honorary rank
of Major General. During the period he was active in
photography, Brewster was stationed at Newry, Cork,
Portsmouth, and Edinburgh. He served abroad in the
West Indies, Bermuda, the Ionian Isles, Malta, and the
East Indies.