Subject matter is mainly plants and trees - some of which are the negatives of the photographs used to produce the album Remarkable Trees of Ayrshire which is held in the RBGE Library – together with some images from Royal Arboricultural Society of Scotland annual summer excursions (1896-1902).

The collection also reflects other aspects of Paxton’s photographic interests: these included architectural studies, particularly of tower houses and other historical subjects, both in Scotland and during private travels to Worcestershire, Hampshire, Devon and the Chanel Islands; experiments with light; a fascination with capturing images of water in all its moods; and albums related to his membership of Talbot Circulating Album Club. It is also rich in portraits of family and friends and lively studies of their leisure pursuits.

Collection includes Paxton's bound photographs of 'Remarkable Trees in Ayrshire' presented to the RBGE in December 1894 at the request of Regius Keeper Isaac Bayley Balfour.

Some examples of his photography have been attached to this description. They are not to be reproduced without permission from RBGE.

SAB/1: Minute Books, 4 volumes
SAB/2: Accounts
SAB/3: Correspondence / papers
SAB/4: Publications
SAB/5: Photo Album
SAB/6: Maps
SAB/7: Ephemera / Objects including snuff mull and leather bag

1 box containing book of lichen dyed samples and list 'Native Plants used as Dyes in Tweed Making'

• file: 'The Dyeing Properties of some Scottish Lichens and of a few other materials' Pattern Book by T.S. Patterson D.Sc. Ph.D University of Glasgow
• report: Report on the Frequency of Occurrence of Dye-Producing Lichens in Scotland by Edward Stewart. M.A., B.Sc. Fellow of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh.
• list: Native Plants used as Dyes in Tweed Making, includes extracts from papers describing experiments on the dyeing property of lichens by W. Lauder Lindsay, M.D., Assistant Physician, Crichton Royal Institution, Dumfries, 1854-1855, and list of lichens which yield dyes based on Les Lichens Utiles by F. Henneguy, Paris, 1883, and Further list of Highland Native Dyes from Occasional Papers by R.C. Maclagan pp. n.d. Paper on 'Highland Dyeing' read before Royal Scottish Society of Arts, 1898 [various versions of these lists - will need sorting before proper listing and cataloguing]
• report: 'Notes on Occurrence and Distribution in Scotland of Dye-Producing Lichens, Supplementary to report on Occurrence of Lecanora tartarea Ach. by E.J.A. Stewart, M.A., B.Sc.
• report: 'The Dyeing Properties of some Scottish Lichens and of a few other materials' by T.S. Paterson, D.Sc. Ph.D., University of Glasgow
• documentation showing that Brian Coppins bought this batch of material from an Antiquarian Booksellers in 1998.

various photographs and illustrations
series of papers donated in February 1978 by Mary Noble including a leaflet for a Scottish Arts Council Exhibition in Charlote Square, March 1970; photocopy of his obituary in The Scotsman in 1967 and two excerpts from the Scots Magazine, September and October 1954 containing two parts of an article about Adam and his photography.

7 boxes containing correspondence, reports, minutes, circulars and agendas produced by the CSSF (Committee for the Study of the Scottish Flora)

Manuscript titled 'Localities for New or Rare Mosses in Scotland'.
The names Alexander McKinlay, James Stirton and John Shaw are mentioned as collectors in the manuscript, alongside three dates, 1861, 1864 and 1868. Although not definite, the handwriting in the documents compares very favourably to that of James Hardy (1815-1898), Secretary of the Berwickshire Naturalists Club and compiling a work on Mosses of Berwickshire at the end of the 1860s.

•Correspondence (March – April 1916) and a paper titled ‘Mosses from West Ross-shire’.