The Johnston Collection

The Johnston Collection represents the work of three generations of Caithness photographers who captured images of life in and around the area between 1863 and 1975. During that period they produced around a hundred thousand glass plate negatives. Of these, around fifty thousand survive and are held in trust by the Wick Society.

The collection represents a unique record of Wick's development and its importance as a major herring fishing port, as well as unique scenes from many other areas of industry and general life across Caithness and Sutherland.

The vast majority of images which survive in the Johnston Collection are studio portraits of those living in and around Caithness and Sutherland during the Johnston period. For this reason, the collection can be an invaluable tool for anybody with an interest in their family history.

Details are sparse for many of the photographs in the collection, and for this reason if you recognise people or places in the photographs on our website, or just have a story to tell about one of them, we would be very happy to hear it and add it to the rest of the information.

The information in the website database has been put together by a small group of volunteers over a very short space of time. It is a work in progress, and we need your help to complete the project! If you see mistakes in the information which is attached to the photgraphs then please let us know by filling in the form at the bottom of the image page. We need the public to get it right for future generations!

Visit www.johnstoncollection.net to browse through the thousands of images that have already been digitised.