Patrick Geddes and a group of children in front of the Outlook Tower

Born in the Highlands of Scotland in 1854, Patrick Geddes studied biology and evolutionary theory in London, France and Mexico, before returning to Scotland in 1880. By the mid-1880s his interests had diverged to sociology, geography, ecology, education theory, cultural activism and urban planning. He died in Montpellier, France, in 1932. The Photographic Society of Edinburgh established an Edinburgh Photographic Survey group in 1899, with the objective of creating a photographic record of Edinburgh. The Society subsequently staged an exhibition in 1904 which included 359 photographs. It is not clear whether the photographs used by Geddes in his Survey of Edinburgh were loaned to him from the Photographic Society of Edinburgh or in fact commissioned by him. It is thought that many may have been taken by photographers Francis Caird Inglis and Robert Dykes and then a selection made and arranged for the survey by Geddes himself, assisted by Dykes, and two of Geddes’ children, Norah and Alastair Geddes, and his God-daughter, Mabel Barker. ​Over 250 of the original, glass-plate negatives from Geddes’ Survey of Edinburgh survive. Creator uncertain; possibly Francis Caird Inglis, fl. 1880-1940, (photographer); Robert Dykes, fl. 1905-1906, (photographer); or the Photographic Society of Edinburgh, 1861-

University of Edinburgh, Patrick Geddes Collection: Coll-1167/B/23/12​