Introducing Violet Brodie: Part I – the Brodie Castle albums

We currently estimate that there are about 3,500 photographs in the Brodie Castle collection, mostly contained within a series of albums. The photographs themselves are extremely varied, dating from the mid-19th century until the early 20th century.

We believe that many were compiled by Elizabeth Brodie, the Duchess of Gordon, and contain carte de visites collected by the Duchess in the 1860s. Carte de visites were small, studio photographs of a uniform size, almost like the trading cards or football stickers of their day. Collectors could buy albums specifically created to house them, and could seek out their favourite faces amongst the great and good to fill their pages.

However, we’ve begun work by delving into five albums created by Violet Brodie between 1898 and 1912. Violet was born in 1878, the only child of Colonel Montagu Hope and Caroline Fletcher. Following her parents’ separation, Violet was raised by her father at Bothwell Castle. After her father passed away, she lived with her maternal uncle, James Douglas Fletcher, at Rosehaugh, Avoch. In 1904, she married Ian Brodie, the 24th laird, and came to live at Brodie Castle. These albums are interesting – not just because of the photographs they contain, the majority of which were taken by Violet Brodie – but also in their own right.

In compiling her albums, Violet would have had to make a lot of decisions: what was included, and what was not? Should a photograph of this person go next to one of that person? What else should be included on a page, apart from photographs? In this sense, the albums become a tangible link – almost a time-capsule – with the person compiling them. This is in contrast to loose photographs and negatives, which are vulnerable to reordering, reinterpretation and removal by others.

Violet’s earlier albums, produced between 1898 and 1904, suggest that she saw the process of album-making as distinctly creative. Aside from photographs taken by her and those in her circle, they also include newspaper clippings, watercolour sketches and ephemera including tickets, flyers and postcards. Rather than photo albums, these volumes seem to have functioned primarily as autograph books or scrapbooks.

Violet Brodie travelled extensively around Britain, visiting the houses of her friends and family. In her earlier albums, she dedicates a page or two to each location. These pages were then covered in her friends’ signatures, as they recorded their presence at each place and gathering. Then, Violet adds more detail to the scene. By preserving both ephemera and photographs, she records her companions indulging in the various activities expected of a young elite at leisure: hunting, attending the races and the theatre, and dancing. Some of her photographs also indicate that she was far from unusual in her interest in photography; others within her circle were using the camera to record their lives too.

Although these images are far-removed from the experiences of twenty-somethings both today and later in the 20th century, the joy of having fun with friends and the desire to record it allows us to continue to empathise with Violet and her sitters.

The albums also contain multiple images of Rosehaugh, Violet’s home in Ross-shire. She photographed her friends lounging on the house’s front steps and relaxing in the grounds. Interestingly, her albums also contain images of the house’s interior. In 1959, following the sale of its contents, Rosehaugh was demolished. These images are therefore especially significant, as they offer views of lost spaces through the eyes of somebody that had experienced them on a daily basis, and called them home. As such, they facilitate a vital way of understanding and seeing the past.

Despite this loss, glimpses of Rosehaugh can still be seen in Scotland. As can be seen in Violet’s albums, the Fletchers had a penchant for Asian sculpture, with twin chinthe – leogrpyh temple guardians – flanking their front steps. Another statue from their collection, a Buddha that once sat in their garden, can now be found in the central hall of the National Museum of Scotland.