Thomas Annan (1829-1887) was one of the most influential, successful, and innovative photographers in 19th-century Scotland.
He produced work in all the main categories associated with commercial practice in the mid-19th century, including portraiture, landscape, urban and industrial documentation, and reproductions of works of art.
Annan's reputation today rests largely on his work for the City of Glasgow in 1871 known as 'Photographs of the old closes and streets of Glasgow'.
But he also pioneered the use of several important innovations in photographic technology, especially the use of the carbon process (for which his firm held the patent in Scotland) and of photogravure.
This example, a carbon print of rich deep tones, exactly suits the nature of the architecture.
It is included in a photographically illustrated book devoted to the Old College of Glasgow University, which dates from 1450.