Cookies

We use necessary cookies to make our site work. We'd also like to set optional analytics cookies to help us improve it. We won't set optional cookies unless you enable them or accept our recommended settings. Using this tool will set a cookie on your device to remember your preferences.

Options
Necessary cookies enable core functionality on our website. You may disable these by changing your browser settings, but this may affect how the website functions.
We use marketing cookies to personalise your visit to our website and show you tailored advertising based on your likes and interests.
We use analytics cookies to monitor visitor behaviour patterns and improve our website performance.

Your preferences have been set. If you wish to change your preferences, you may do so on our cookies page.

Search My Trust
Join now
Join
Close

Looking for places? Use our place search to find them by name, town or postcode.

See all stories
18 Feb 2020

Scraps of the past – Violet Brodie’s photo albums: Part II

Written by Lily Barnes – Morton Project Documentation and Digitisation Officer
A black and white photograph of a group of children standing on a street in the town of Aberlady. The boys wear jackets, shorts and peak caps, and the girls wear dark dresses with long pale aprons. Several members of the group are looking towards the photographer, who stands at the side of the road.
Between 1898 and 1904, Violet Brodie (then Violet Hope) recorded her movements in a series of scrapbook photo albums. Over the next year, we’ll be sharing photographs of these albums so that you can retrace her steps. Today, we catch up with Violet in February 1899 ...
A black and white photograph of a group of children standing on a street in the town of Aberlady. The boys wear jackets, shorts and peak caps, and the girls wear dark dresses with long pale aprons. Several members of the group are looking towards the photographer, who stands at the side of the road. – A page in a scrapbook album. The page is covered with 17 black and white photographs, which show views in the Italian town of Florence. Some of the photographs show dogs and cats, and others show groups of men and women in Edwardian dress. The page is covered in signatures in black ink. ‘Feb 18-March 23 1899’ is painted in red watercolour across the top left corner of the page. A black and white photograph of a tabby cat lying on a chair in a sunlit courtyard. The cat lies on its side and licks its front right paw, which is raised in front of its face. A page in a scrapbook album. The page is covered with 14 black and white photographs, which show views from the hamlet of Luffness. Five of the photographs show a group of men playing golf. Two photographs show two donkeys in a field, and some of the others show a boy playing with a pale, fluffy dog. ‘Luffness April 1899’ is painted in green and red watercolour across the top left corner of the page, and there are three signatures in black ink below this. A black and white photograph of a man playing golf on a flat, grassy golf course. The man has raised his club, which is slightly blurred in the air. He has his back to the photographer and two men stands beside him to the right. A black and white photograph of a pale, fluffy dog standing on a dirt road in Luffness. The dog is seen in profile and faces to the right. Several brick buildings are visible in the background and to the left is a tall brick chimney. A page in a scrapbook album. The page is covered with 17 black and white photographs. Most of the photographs depict views of the grounds and gardens of Luffness House, and around the hamlet of Luffness. There are also three photographs of an older woman holding a white and tabby kitten, and two showing interiors of Luffness House. A black and white photograph of a boy and an older woman walking in a field in Luffness. The boy wears a jacket, trousers and a peaked cap. He wears a small box on a strap across his back, possibly a small camera. He links arms with the older woman, who walks on his right. She wears a large dark hat, a velvet jacket and a long patterned skirt. Both have their backs to the photographer. A page in a scrapbook album. The page is covered with five photographs depicting architecture and people in the towns of Luffness and Aberlady. ‘Luffness and Aberlady 1899’ is written in black ink at the centre of the page. A black and white photograph of a group of seven boys gathered on a small stone monument on a street in Aberlady. The monument has a square base with three stone steps forming a pyramid, which the boys are sitting and standing on. At the centre is a stone post, which some of the boys have their backs to. The three seated boys are barefoot. One of the boys appears to be slightly older than the rest, and stands to the left holding a book under his arm. All the boys wear jackets, shorts or trousers and peak caps.

Explore Brodie Castle

Visit now

Read next

A single page in a scrapbook album. In the bottom left corner of the page are two oval photographs, showing the Walter Scott Monument and Princes Street Garden, Edinburgh. Above this is piece of pale blue notepaper. This has ‘LUFFNESS, Aberlady, NB’ printed on it in black ink, and three handwritten signatures. In the top right corner of the page is a black and white photograph of Luffness House. Beneath this is a black and white photograph of Mount Stuart, a large stately home on the Isle of Bute. Vines have been painted across the page in green watercolour.

Scraps of the past – Violet Brodie’s photo albums: Part I

Follow in the footsteps of Violet Brodie by exploring her scrapbook photo albums.

Collage of black and white photos and handwritten signatures

Introducing Violet Brodie: Part I – the Brodie Castle albums

Learn about the Morton team’s next project – a collection of photographic albums from Brodie Castle.

Black and white photo of an Edwardian woman holding a baby and a small child with a white dog

Introducing Violet Brodie: Part II – at home with the Brodies

Find out more about the fascinating albums compiled by Violet Brodie of Brodie Castle.

Page from a photo album with six black and white photos

Introducing Violet Brodie: Part III – Violet’s last album

Read the final part in our series on the albums of Violet Brodie of Brodie Castle.

Read more stories on

Back to top