When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
James Valentine founded Valentine & Sons Ltd in Dundee in 1851. He added portrait photography to the activities of his established Dundee business, which had been based up to 1851 on the engraving, printing and supply of business stationery. In 1855, he erected one of the largest photographic glasshouses in Britain.
In 1860, he decided to emulate the success of George Washington Wilson in Aberdeen by selling topographical view photographs. In 1866, Valentine carried out his first Royal commission and received the royal warrant in 1867. His organisational and presentational skills were essential in the rapidly expanding and thriving concern which opened a large printing works at 152 and 154 Perth Road, Dundee.
At its height, Valentine's collection of original monochrome negatives, with views from Land's End to John o' Groats as well as many places overseas, was without doubt the largest and most universal ever established in Great Britain. Only about a fifth of it survived the firm's practice of discarding many out of date views. Stately homes, historic ruins, great open spaces, beaches, the grandeur and curiosity of nature, and great engineering feats formed the basis of the firm's repertoire.
