Erskine Beveridge (1851-1920)
Erskine Beveridge was the owner of a Dunfermline based company that manufactured fine table and bed linen. He was extremely interested in history and archaeology and was a keen amateur photographer.
Beveridge travelled through America, Canada and Europe and travelled extensively around Scotland, using steamers, trains and horse-drawn carriages to visit remote areas.
He published a number of volumes of work on the history and archaeology of areas such as Dunfermline and West Fife, Crail, Coll and Tiree and North Uist. His work was illustrated with his own photographs.
He was highly respected by his contemporaries and in 1901 he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and in 1904 an Honorary Doctor of Laws of the University of St. Andrews.
In the late 1880’s, Beveridge spent several Summers photographing the fishing villages of the East Neuk of Fife, from which nearly 200 images still survive.
He was aware that he lived in a time of great change and aimed to document the architecture and way of life of an era.