During the 19th century wealthy travelers stopped in various ports in the West Indies, where the ships would refuel and stock up with provisions for their onward journeys.
 
A number of the photographs in this exhibition are by James Valentine. In the 1840s James learned the daguerreotype process in France where he almost certainly met with Andre Disderi. He learned the wet plate process and on his return to Scotland, he opened his Dundee studio where he specialized in carte de visites, Disderi‘s invention.
 
Little is known of the travels of James Valentine or even if it was he that actually took the photographs that bear his stamp J.V. and numerical system. His son‘s, George Valentine and William Valentine, were photographers and it is very possible that one of them made the photographs which we see here and were incorporated into the vast catalogue of landscape images that were sold by the James Valentine company. George Valentine traveled extensively and later started his own company and his photographs bear the G.V. mark.
 
We would be most interested in obtaining details on other photographers that worked in the West Indies doing the 19th century.