George Washington Wilson

George Washington Wilson was one of Scotland's leading photographer in Victorian times, particularly in the art of stereo photography. He began his career as a portrait miniature painter, but in the late 1840s was an early adopter of photography, and started offering his clients photographic portraits. Prince Albert commissioned him to photograph the the construction of Balmoral Castle, and he also captured many historic portraits of Queen Victoria and family at Balmoral. Queen Victoria honoured him by appointing him Photographer to the Queen. Based in Aberdeen, he made a thriving business printing and selling stereo cards of tourist attractions from Fingal's Cave on the remote Island of Staffa to London's busiest thoroughfare, Oxford Street. In this book Roger Taylor, the world authority on Wilson, captures the essence of the man and presents a glorious gallery of his work in colour, with many 3-D stereo cards which can be viewed with the complimentary viewer included in the back of the book. Dr Brian May designed and manufactured the OWL stereo viewer, provided many of the stereo photographs from his extensive archive, and wrote the Foreword to the book.