Adamson, John (1809-1870)

Medical doctor and chemist in St. Andrews. He was curator of the Literary and Philosophical Society Museum at St. Andrews from 1838 until his death. Meetings of the society were the occasion for the exhibition and discussion of the photographs taken by William Henry Fox Talbot, Hugh Lyon Playfair, the Adamson brothers and others. He instructed his brother, Robert, in the calotype process, and is credited with taking the first calotype portrait (held in the Royal Museum, Edinburgh) in Scotland in May 1840