This commemorative book is a fine example of the abilities of the Glasgow University printers, MacLehose, and is a testament to the talents of the Glasgow firm of photographers, T. & R. Annan and Sons. Their beautiful portraits and images of the University buildings immortalized the Old College and the members of academic staff at a time of significant change for the University. Glasgow University Old and New is a valuable insight into the University’s past, and to the University’s role as a landmark institution. This visual record of the buildings and senior academic staff of Glasgow University is revised and updated from Memorials of the Old College of Glasgow (1871), which had 41 albumen or carbon prints by Thomas Annan. That work was produced as a document of the old university before the campus was moved to Gilmorehill. Most of the old buildings were sold to the City of Glasgow Union Railway and demolished.

T. & R. Annan and Sons was founded in 1857 by Thomas Annan who died in 1887. His son James Craig Annan, joined the firm in 1877 before eventually taking over the business together with his brother. He was a pioneer of the technique of photogravure, traveling to Vienna in 1883 at the age of nineteen to learn the process from its inventor Karl Klíč. There was also a deluxe edition of 50 copies on large paper.