This week, we present new sets of images from the institution’s collections. Just uploaded this past week, these photographs are waiting to be explored, savored and commented upon.

Phillips Glass Plate Negatives Collection – Powerhouse Museum These negatives are from a collection of glass plate negatives which was acquired by the museum in the 1980s and appears to have been made by a Sydney-based photographic studio from around 1890 through to 1920.

Phillips Glass Plate Negatives

On the high seas – National Maritime Museum George Oates curated this collection of images, which includes images from Villiers’ voyages on the Herzogin Cecilie, the Grace Harwar and the Parma, as well as on Arab dhows.

On the high seas

Retouche en fotomontages – Nationaal Archief Retouched images and photo montages. Featuring actress Dorothy Jordan, a human-powered airplane, and a double-deckered bus race.

Retouche en fotomontages

Cars & bikes – National Library of New Zealand A collection of car and motorcycle images from Samuel Heath Head, of whom little is known. Please contribute your knowledge to this set.

Cars & bikes

Pets and other animals – State Library of New South Wales Pets, working animals, stock and zoo animals, and kittens kittens kittens galore!

Pets and other animals

Publicidade – Biblioteca de Arte-Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian Features photographic-type advertising for products, businesses, shops, produced by Studio Mário Novais.

Publicidade

Ponts et aqueducs – Bibliothèque de Toulouse Bridges and aqueducts in photographs taken in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Ponts et aqueducs

Inauguration – Smithsonian Institution Presidential inaugurals have a cherished history at the Smithsonian. Features inaugural ball gowns, top hats and tails, and swearing-in ceremonies.

Inauguration

National Galleries of Scotland All sets are new, as they just joined the Commons last week. Everything from Balmoral to the Great Pyramids of Egypt.

National Galleries of Scotland

News in the 1910s – Library of Congress The LOC continually adds to this set, now updated with portraits of kings, kaisers and a lady pitching out the first baseball at the opening of Ebbets Field.

News in the 1910s

Upon hearing that the National Galleries of Scotland have joined the Flickr Commons project, one word immediately springs to mind.

Kilts!

There may be a better tribute to the country that brought the world the gift of the Scottish Enlightenment, bedrock of the best aspects of modernity, than a collection of kilts. However, running a Commons search for “kilt” had revealed only two kilt-related images from all of the existing Commons institutions.

This first result, from the Imperial War Museum, has stood alone in satisfying the requirement for archetypal kilt imagery in the Commons collection since it was first uploaded in November of last year. Unfortunately, it also includes two individuals who not only are kiltless, but obscure the kilt by standing in front of it!

Imperial War Museum

The second result, from the New York Public Library, shows no fewer than three kilt-clad Scottish boys. It is likely that these boys were recent immigrants, asked to dress in holiday finery by photographer Augustus Sherman, the Ellis Island Chief Registry Clerk. While the photo contains many kilts, prominently displayed, the circumstances and human interest of the photograph largely overwhelms a sense of undiluted “kilty-ness”

New York Public Library

While a search for Plaid provided 14 results, showing the full extent of the Scottish tartan’s cultural influence, clearly a large infusion of Kilt was needed in The Commons collection. This is where the National Galleries of Scotland came in, adding an additional 6 kilt-related photos in their first batch of uploads, quadrupling the Commons kilt collection overnight.

The new wealth of results includes this incredible image of John Sobieski Stolberg-Stuart. An Englishman from Wales originally named John Carter Allen, he moved to Scotland with his brother and adopted the alias “John Sobieski Stuart”. Claiming to be the grandsons of Bonnie Prince Charlie, the two brothers learned Gaelic, hobnobbed with Scottish nobility, and published the controversial Vestiarium Scoticum — an “inventive” book on the history of Highland dress. Although quickly exposed as inauthentic, many of its designs and patterns passed into the realm of official clan tartans!

National Galleries of Scotland

So not only do the National Galleries of Scotland bring us a wealth of flashy-looking kilts, in the process they bring us the incredible story of a historical charlatan and his influence on the development of the kilt itself.

Yes, it was one year ago today that the Library of Congress pilot launched on Flickr, and The Commons was born.

When the LOC approached Flickr with an inquiry about uploading a large number of images, Flickr designer George Oates saw the potential and had a beautiful Big Idea.

Library of Congress

Instead of just another Flickr account, The Commons was created as an entirely new space with a unique solution to the copyright issues faced by museums, libraries and archives. The “no known copyright restrictions” rights statement allowed public institutions to share the millions of images stored in their archives for which they did not hold any specific rights, giving Flickr users access to their incredible photographic collections.

At the time of the launch, both Flickr and the LOC hoped “that the project will eventually capture the imagination and involvement of other public institutions as well”. I think it’s fair to say that neither Flickr nor the LOC was prepared for the tremendous reception they received from the Flickr community who welcomed them with open arms.

Barely one year later, the National Galleries of Scotland are the 18th public institution to join the Commons and share their amazing photos of Scottish life with us. The number of Commons photos now exceeds 12,000 and the number of tags and comments added by Flickr users are in their millions.

Over the past year the interest among the Flickr Community has grown with the announcement of each new Commons member in the Flickr blog. And over the past month the Commons Community has come together to share in the enjoyment of George Oates’s beautiful Big Idea. The excitement and passion for the Commons project can only mean that The Commons’ second year will bring even greater achievements.

Some things are guaranteed to happen. There will be ever more institutions joining the Commons, adding their photo collections into the mix and being welcomed by the Flickr Community. We will have our first ever Commons Flickr meetup and get to speak to some of the incredible people working behind the Commons accounts. And there will be ever growing cooperation between Commons partners and Commons fans.

So help yourself to a piece of Birthday Pie and join me in celebrating a very happy first Commons birthday!

Library of Congress

Flickr announced today that the National Galleries of Scotland have joined The Commons, with 107 photos. Those first releases include a large selection of important early photographs from Hill (seen on the right in this photo) and Adamson.

Robert Adamson, David Octavius Hill
Edinburgh Ale: James Ballantine, Dr George Bell and David Octavius Hill, 1843 – 1847
National Galleries of Scotland: PGP HA 435