Robert Adamson (26 April 1821 – 14 January 1848) was a Scottish chemist and pioneer photographer at Hill & Adamson. He is best known for his pioneering photographic work with David Octavius Hill and producing some 2500 calotypes, mostly portraits, within 5 years after being hired by Hill in 1843.
Early years
thumb|Rock House.
Adamson was born in St Andrews, one of ten children of Rachel Melville and Alexander Adamson, a Fife tenant farmer. and apprenticed as a millwright for several months.
Career
Adamson was keen on becoming an engineer, but ill health led to him pursuing photography. He was taught calotype by his brother, John, and by the physicist David Brewster of the University of St Andrews in the late 1830s. Adamson's brother John, a general practitioner, lecturer, and curator of the University Museum, produced the first calotype in Scotland in 1841. Adamson, established his photographic studio at Rock House, Calton Hill Stairs in Edinburgh, on 10 May 1843. In June, Brewster recommended Adamson to David Octavius Hill (1802–1870), a painter of romantic Scottish landscapes, who hired him; This painting, however, would not be completed until 1866, long after his death.
The first studio specializing in calotypes in Edinburgh, Hill required calotypes from which he would paint. Distinguished persons from many fields came to be photographed by the partners and within a few years they had taken the art scene by storm in Scotland. some say 3000 or more, included local and Fife landscapes and urban scenes, including images of the Scott Monument, under construction in Edinburgh. They produced several groundbreaking "action" photographs of soldiers and – perhaps their most famous photograph – two priests walking side by side. Their depictions of groups and children were unrivaled.
thumb|upright|Graham Fyvie, [[Robert Cadell and Robert Cunningham Graham Spiers, by Robert Adamson.]]
By mid-1847, the studio stopped production due to the failing health of Adamson. Thinking to recuperate amidst his family, Adamson returned to St Andrews. He died of tuberculosis on 14 January 1848, at the age of 26.
In 1851, the works of Hill & Adamson's appeared at The Great Exhibition.