The Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh houses Scotland's national portrait collection as well as the National Photography Collection. It was founded by the 11th Earl of Buchan, who assembled his collection of portraits of famous Scots in the late 18th century to form the basis of the collection.

The real idea of the gallery came at the end of the nineteenth century thanks also to the support of the historian Thomas Carlyle.

The construction of the gallery was privately financed thanks to the philanthropy of a local newspaper owner who allowed the current gallery to open to the public in 1889.

The architect in charge of the work was Sir Robert Rowand Anderson, a renowned architect of the time who created a modern art gallery, as good as if not better than the European and American ones but at the same time a sanctuary for Scottish heroes.

Even today the Gallery collects works that are portraits of Scots for a total of eight hundred and fifty works on display.

Among the portraits exhibited are those of fundamental figures in Scottish history such as Robert Burns, Sir Walter Scott, Prince Charles Edward Stuart, up to modern heroes such as Emeli Sandé, Billy Connolly and Tilda Swinton.