[St Andrews University, Kate Kennedy Day 1871.] Victorian photographic print of illustration depicting nine St Andrews Professors, one of them said to be John Stuart Mill, in fantastic revels.

The tradition of this annual day of revels at Scotland's oldest university St Andrews is said to date back to the fifteenth century and is said to commemorate the visits of a lady Katharine Kennedy to her uncle, Bishop Kennedy of St Andrews, every Spring. 9 x 5 cm sepia photographic print of illustration, laid down on 10.5 x 6 cm piece of card, and clearly made in the nineteenth century. In fair condition, lightly aged. As part of the print, at bottom right: ‘Kate Kennedy pinxit / 1871’. On reverse in pencil: ‘D of Fa[?] / K K Day / St A Professors / J S Mill?’ The photograph is of a drawing of eight middle-aged men, presumably St Andrews professors, dancing and playing musical instruments in a semi-circle around a ninth, dressed as a tumbler, and standing on his head. Each of the heads in the illustration is a cut-out from a photographic portrait, laid down on the page and drawn around. The last figure on the left is a skeleton, and the last on the right, crouching and playing a drum, has a serpent’s tail. See image.