Dear Auld Reekie is a slim volume travel guide printed just over a hundred years ago in 1925. It was produced by The Homeland Association whose aim was to encourage Britons to travel in, appreciate and study their own country. It was the first of their publications of Scotland and a companion to Dear Old London which was first issued in 1923.
All the photographs in the booklet were taken by Aberdeen-born photographer Francis Caird Inglis who spent most of his life in Edinburgh. Francis was the son of Alexander Adam Inglis, also a photographer, and both were based for many years at Rock House on Calton Hill. Rock House was home to several illustrious photographer occupants over the years including Robert Adamson and David Octavius Hill, Archibald Burns, John and Thomas Annan and Paul Shillabeer.
Francis Caird Inglis was actively involved with the Edinburgh Photographic Society and was also Royal Warrant Photographer to King George V from 1912 to 1916 and from 1920 to 1935.
The images inside feature many scenes that are still recognisable today. Perhaps the main difference is the lack of vehicles and numbers of people.
Francis Caird Inglis continued photographing the streets and buildings of Edinburgh until he died in 1940 aged 60.
The image library for the collections of Edinburgh Libraries and Museums and Galleries