Background
Robert Moyes Adam was born in 1885, in Carluke, South Lanarkshire, Scotland.
Robert Moyes Adam was born in 1885, in Carluke, South Lanarkshire, Scotland.
Robert studied art at the Royal Institution in Edinburgh and at the College of Art at Lauriston. He also took classes in science at Heriot-Watt College.
Adam began work for the Royal Botanical Gardens in 1907 and was promoted to its permanent staff in charge of the studio in 1914. He remained there until his retirement in 1949, widely publishing his work in books and such periodicals as The Scots Magazines. Adam was a member and official photographer of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh. Both a botanical and landscape photographer, Adam worked solely with the heavy half-plate large format camera. He received practically no recognition in his day.
Adam was a member and official photographer of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh.
Quotes from others about the person
In his book about Adam, George Oliver wrote that few of the photographer's contemporaries were able to match his "exalted standards of aesthetic awareness and technical accomplishment or to challenge for any length of time his singular ability to reveal the form and structure and changing aspect of Scottish . . . landscape with so much style and distinction."