A fascinating photography exhibition showcasing the golden era of the River Clyde has opened at the Scottish Maritime Museum on Irvine Harbourside.

‘Window on the Clyde: Family Photos of the River’s Golden Age’, which runs until Sunday, November 3, brings together photographs taken by three generations of the Paterson family of Dunoon between the late 1800s up to the end of World War II.

Together, the family’s photographs tell the Clyde’s story through the unique perspective of one Scottish family. They showcase the pleasure, innovation and tragedy of the ships of the Clyde, from the paddle steamers going ‘doon the watter’ to the Glasgow shipyards.

Following in the footsteps of his grandfather and father, amateur photographer Robert Beatty Paterson was the last generation to capture the maritime scenes he saw through the window of his family’s Dunoon home.

In 1989, he loaned 60,000 images to the Scottish Maritime Museum. Here they were curated into the Paterson Photography Collection.

‘Window on the Clyde: Family Photos of the River’s Golden Age’ is the first public exhibition of photographs from the Paterson Photography Collection shown by the Scottish Maritime Museum. Images include Clyde puffers unloading at Dunoon coal pier and PS Gael berthing at Dunoon as people watch on from the rocks around 1900; PS Laguna Belle berthed on the south quay of the James Watt Dock in Greenock around 1930; and SB Archibald Russell being towed by the Steel & Bennie Limited tug Warrior on the Firth of Clyde around 1920.

Window on the Clyde: Family Photos of the River’s Golden Age runs until Sunday 3 November. Entry to the exhibition is included in general museum admission. For more information, visit www.scottish maritimemuseum.org