[St. Andrews Harbour]

In this harbor image the skyline of St. Andrews, Scotland, is punctuated by an array of vertical shapes: towers, turrets, masts, and chimneys. The twin medieval spires of St. Andrews Cathedral are paired with the two spindly spars of a ship.

The town is named for the apostle Saint Andrew, whose bones, according to legend, were carried there by Saint Rule (his tower is the square monolith to the left of the cathedral). During the Middle Ages the city took on great religious importance and attracted many pilgrims, making it the ancient ecclesiastical capital of Scotland. In 1411 St. Andrews became home to the country's first university. More than four hundred years later, through the efforts of Sir David Brewster (1781-1868) and John Adamson (1810-70), the brother of Robert Adamson (1821-48), who in collaboration with David Octavius Hill (1802-70) made this photograph, the town earned another distinction, becoming the birthplace of photography in Scotland.

Anne M. Lyden. Hill and Adamson, In Focus: Photographs from the J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1999), 86. ©1999, J. Paul Getty Museum.