Imagine we can take an actual photo of somebody in Blantyre from the 1890’s and transform it into a short video. Well, here in 2026, that’s now possible.
This is Mary Ann Ritchie, the wife of photographer, David Ritchie. The couple, back in 1895 lived at School Lane in High Blantyre having moved from Strathaven. Incredibly, the photo this was derived from was produced from a negative plate in excellent clarity and we even know the exact date it was taken! The 11th September 1895.
The location is the front door of the Mary Ann’s home in School Lane, High Blantyre and as it turns out, I am very distantly related to her. Another coincidence being that at the time of writing this, her former home pictured was just over my own garden wall! Using AI, we can recreate a short 5 second video burst, glimpsing into the past 131 years ago.
With thanks to Alex Bowie for this photo.