MS 458 The Alexander Low collection

Most of us have some old family photos, letters or documents tucked away in a drawer or in the attic, but how many of us have over 20 boxes relating to eight families, dating back to 1723? Alexander JS Low did and decided to give them to us, University of Dundee Archive Services. The bonus is that Alex was a photojournalist and also donated the slides and prints of assignments that saw him travel across the globe in the 1960s and ‘70s.
Alex’s international career is echoed in his family records. Originating in Kirriemuir and Dundee, descendants married into families from France and Ireland as well as the UK, with members trading in places like Mexico and Singapore. Their letters, journals, sketches, photographs, financial and legal papers not only reflect their cosmopolitan backgrounds and lifestyles, but also detail their personal achievements and difficulties.  

The letters are particularly revealing; young Kenneth Low (b 1902) regularly wrote home with news of life at his school, often asking for help with his sums, and for news of his brother Gerald, reported missing at the start of WW1. Their father’s correspondence includes letters of concern and then condolence from relatives and friends when Gerald’s death was confirmed.  

Another ancestor, Dr AJ Halley (1823-1875), was bedevilled by financial problems. He writes to his elderly father, the Sardinian consul in Madeira, worrying that ’you do not take exercise enough, you should go about more’, but also about his ‘money difficulties’, a theme which continued throughout his life. The West family correspondence reveal the mental health issues of son George (1875-1951) throughout his army career in England, Africa and Russia, and his eventual death in Holloway Sanatorium. Alex himself wrote to his parents describing his photo assignments in India and across Argentina – which he was keen to leave for the USA. 

The families’ artworks are also of special interest. The oldest in the collection is a small, annotated water colour of a battle at Naples, given in 1810 to James Chabot (1779-1850), a merchant in Malta, with a description of the battle.  

But the more usual kind of artwork can be found in Eliza Hally’s (fl 1835-1840) scrapbook album which contains handwritten verses and illustrations of flora and fauna mostly done while she was living in Madeira with her husband.  

Chabot’s daughter married into the Low family, who were particularly talented and produced watercolours and sketches of scenes around their homes and of their travels.  

Gerald Low’s (1895-1914) talent stretched from scenic watercolour sketches to cartoons, recording scenes around his home and while on holiday. He was evidently drawing from an early age and his cartoon suggests Gerald had a sense of humour.

Despite their liking of the pencil and brush, the Low family also embraced photography early, and the collection holds several daguerreotypes and ambrotypes featuring family members.  Luckily, most of the photographs in the collection are titled, so we can often trace a life from birth, through school and across adulthood, gaining insights into relationships. 

 AG Low (1853-1936) was a particularly enthusiastic photographer, and passed his passion to his sons, especially to AH Low (1892-1974), who introduced the basic techniques to his own son, Alex. Unsurprisingly perhaps, Alex grew up to be such a successful photojournalist, the first picture editor and staff photographer of the new colour supplement, the Weekend Telegraph. 

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