
Holyrood Palace
1850 · Albumen print, stereo
Each image: 7.8 × 7.4 cm (3 1/8 × 2 15/16 in.); Card: 8.4 × 17.4 cm (3 5/16 × 6 7/8 in.)
Art Institute of Chicago

G. W. Wilson was a Scottish photographer who pioneered mass-production techniques for photographic prints and outdoor landscape photography in the mid-nineteenth century. Beginning as a portrait miniaturist in 1849, he transitioned to photography two years later and secured a contract to photograph the Royal Family for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. By the 1860s, Wilson had shifted toward landscape work, claiming sales exceeding half a million prints by 1864, establishing a model for the commercial distribution of photography that anticipated modern print culture.
Source: Aic · Trust score: 50% · Updated 1mo ago