Album compiled by Rev. F.H. Atkinson, relating his family and acquaintances including the Tennyson family, Julia Margaret Cameron, Lewis Carroll, Oscar Rejlander, and locations on the Isle of Wight and Ceylon, approximately 165 albumen prints (mostly carte-de-visite portraits, some views, others larger - see below), mounted between one and six per page, mostly captioned (many with cut signatures of sitters pasted beneath), with a 3-page AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED BY JOHN RUSKIN (mounted), newspaper cuttings, contemporary morocco, later cloth wrappers with Atkinson arms embroidered on upper cover, 4to, [c.1862-1890s]

The album was compiled by Reverend Francis Home Atkinson (1840-1901) of Morland Hall, Westmorland. He had gained a B.A. at Caius College in 1861, and was for a time private tutor to the Tennyson children. He was an acquaintance of C.L. Dodgson, contributing to College Rhymes when it was being edited by Dodgson, who subsequently dedicated Rhyme? and Reason? (1883) to Atkinson's daughter Gertrude. Atkinson had met his wife Edith in Jersey in 1868, and they married the following year. In 1880 he was appointed curate of St Paul's, Jersey and later All Souls, Jersey. In 1894 Reverend Francis Home Atkinson of St Helier, Jersey, one of the principle land-owners in the parish of Westmorland bought Morland Hall.

There are at least six photographs of Atkinson himself (including a "group taken at Cambridge in 1869" with his wife Edith and in-laws, and "Groups taken in Jersey, 1868"); the many photographs of his relatives include "Robert Atkinson and his coolies, Ceylon" and two views of his Ceylon coffee estate, captioned "Morland Ambegamoa" (and one signed "Scowen") in the negative (182 x 230mm.). The Camerons, of course, had their own coffee plantations in Ceylon, and named their Isle of Wight home "Dimbola" after one of them.

Other sitters are presumed friends, neighbours or persons Atkinson admired: John Herschel (Walker & Sons), John Ruskin (Elliot & Fry), Charles Kingsley (cut signature below), H.W. Longfellow, Royal children (possibly met whilst on Isle of Wight), Charles Clinton Parry (signed); The Duchess of Atholl (by William Notman, signed in the negative); Sir Graham Eden Hamond (with one of his wife, and daughter - all these by Camille Silvy, see NPG Ax54341 for Graham Eden). There are several views of houses, including Atkinson's family home at Morland (4), and Tennyson's home at Farringford (and 2 other Isle of Wight locations).