The photographic archive of Alexander Cain (1902-1981) of Aberdeen, who worked at Aberdeen University as a photographer and who was an Associate of the Royal Photographic Society (ARPS. The collection consists of prints, glass plates, transparencies, seven 8 mm reels of film and 52 associated exhibition catalogues and pamphlets, depicting Scottish landscapes, King's College Chapel, Aberdeen, and Scottish antiquities. Cain contributed photographs to Aberdeen anatomy professor Robert Lockhart's influential 1959 textbook 'Anatomy of the human body'. He also did the pre- and post-excavation photography of the St Ninian’s Isle Treasure (Shetland), which was excavated by a team of archaeologists led by Professor A. C. O'Dell of Aberdeen University. There are examples of prints for both projects in the collection.

Organisation

Collection-level record only; there is a shelf list available for consultation. The collection has been assigned the shelfmark 'Cain.'.

Acquisition

The collection was donated in 1982, and subsequently added to, by Cain's son, the late Dr Alexander Mathieson Cain (1930-2013), Assistant Keeper in the British Museum’s Department of Printed Books, 1954-1966, and later an Assistant Keeper in the National Library, 1973-1989.