Thomas Annan was the father of James Craig Annan and friend of David Octavius Hill and of Sir Joseph Wilson Swan. Annan opened his first studio with his brother Robert in Glasgow in 1855 and made art reproductions, portraits and views. In 1866 the Glasgow City Improvement Trust hired him to photograph slums before they were torn down. In 1868 he produced two sets of 31 prints, then additional sets later. The Trust published an edition of 100 volumes of 40 prints in 1878-1879.
Artist Bibliography
1878
Annan, Thomas. Photographs of the Old Closes and Streets of Glasgow 1868-1877. Glasgow: Glasgow City Improvment Trust, 1878/1879.
1900
The Old Closes and Streets of Glasgow, a Series of Photogravures, 1868-1899. Glasgow: J. Maclehose & Sons, 1900.
1977
Mozley, Anita Venutra. Thomas Annan: Photographs of the Old Closes and Streets of Glasgow 1868-1877. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., with the International Museum of Photography at the George Eastman House, 1977.
1987
Fisher, J.A. "Thomas Annan's 'Old Closes and Streets of Glasgow.' A Catalog of the Images Part Due." Scottish Photography Bulletin (Autumn 1987), 3-13.