The Scottish National Portrait Gallery is situated in the heart of the New Town at the east end of Queen Street. It provides a unique visual history of Scotland, told through portraits of the figures who shaped it: royals and rebels, poets and philosophers, heroes and villains.All the portraits are of Scots, but not all are by Scots. The collection also contains works by great English, European and American masters such as Van Dyck, Gainsborough, Copley, Thorvaldsen, Rodin and Kokoschka, as well as works by Ramsay, Raeburn and many other Scottish artists.

The Scottish National Portrait Gallery was built in the 1880s largely thanks to private generosity. It is an imposing neo-Gothic building in red sandstone, designed by the architect Sir Robert Rowand Anderson. A pageant of Scottish history is displayed in the elaborate scheme of mural and sculptural decoration.Since the Gallery first opened its doors, the collection has grown steadily to form an unequalled kaleidoscope of Scottish life and history. Among the most famous portraits are Mary, Queen of Scots, who stands in brooding isolation; Allan Ramsay's portrait of the philosopher David Hume; Alexander Nasmyth's portrait of Robert Burns, and Sir Henry Raeburn's Sir Walter Scott.In addition to paintings, the Gallery displays sculptures, miniatures, coins, medallions, drawings, watercolours and houses the Scottish National Photography Collection.

The Gallery pursues an active policy of acquiring and commissioning portraits of celebrated living Scots. These include John Bellany's Sean Connery, David Mach's Alex Ferguson and Calum Colvin's constructed portrait photograph of James MacMillan. There is an active programme of and works are available for on request.

The Scottish National Portrait Gallery is also currently home to the Scottish National Photography Collection, which was established by the National Galleries of Scotland in 1984 to collect and research photography with a particular interest in Scottish work, and a remit to collect and exhibit international photography; at that time the Gallery already held the critical collection of photographs by David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson, amounting to some 5,000 calotype negatives and positives. Photography is regarded as the Scottish art form which has attained true international status from its beginnings, principally from Hill and Adamson's work.

Since its establishment, the National Collection has grown to around 27,000 photographs from the early days of photography in the 1840s to the present day. This growth is principally due to the generous collectors and photographers who have given work to the nation and includes 19th century work from the collection of Peter Fletcher Riddell, 900 negatives and positives from the 1840s by John Muir Wood, the Edinburgh Photographic Society collection, and 1970s and 1980s work from the dispersed Scottish Arts Council collection.

These magnificent donations have been complemented by significant purchases as diverse as Dr John Murray's grand prints of Indian architecture from the 1850s, Lewis Carroll's portraits of George Macdonald's family, James Cox's photographs of the Auchmithie fishing village in the 1880s, and the fascinating album belonging to the Glasgow calico merchant Walter Crum, who acquired distinguished French, English and Scottish photographs in the 1850s. The purchase of 20th-century work has augmented our view of photography in Scotland by adding the photographs of distinguished outsiders, whose practice was of particular importance in Scotland in the mid-century. These include such people as Humphrey Spender, Bert Hardy, Bill Brandt, Wolfgang Suschitzky and Roger Mayne. The strong documentary tradition in Scottish work follows through from this to photographs by Grace Robertson, Joseph McKenzie and Oscar Marzaroli.

Photographs have also been acquired by commission, such as Calum Colvin's constructed portrait of the composer James MacMillan and David William's double portrait of the novelist A L Kennedy.

The excellence of Scottish photography has ensured that the National Collection is largely of work by Scots and by visitors to Scotland, but it also contains fine examples of work by international photographers. These include photographs by Roger Fenton in the Crimea in the 1850s and Samuel Bourne in India in the 1870s. The 20th century includes an international diversity of work from Eve Arnold, Inge Morath and Annie Leibovitz.

Photography is a light-sensitive art and pictures may not be exposed for more than a few months. Consequently the collection's work is frequently highlighted and invigorated with temporary exhibitions - 60 of which have been staged in the past 17 years.

In 2002 the Lloyds TSB Scotland Year of Photography at the National Galleries of Scotland showed varied and brilliant photography exhibitions focusing on the art of photography.

A new permanent home for the collection is currently being established: