The album appears to have been compiled by a member of the Fowler family, possibly Edward Willoughby Fowler, who is credited with having taken four of the photographs. Other family portraits include those of Capt. Charles Fowler, Royal Engineer, the Rev. Luke Fowler and Capt. Arthur Fowler. Other sitters identified in individual or group portraits include Lady Sonia Crichton and Viscount Crichton; Lady Cuffe and Lt. O. W. Cuffe, R.M.A.; Maj. Gen. Pringle Taylor and family; the Hon. Henry Cole, M.P.; the Rev. W. Vivian; Major Bligh; Mrs. Hall Hall; the Hon. Mrs. Bellew and the Hon. Major Bellew; E. L. Warren Esq.; and George Robert Beresford, Capt. 88th. Company Rangers. Credits to photographers for portraits are Kilburn (1), [?]Poate (1), [?]Ibsdell (4), Serg. Sullivan (3), C. Hamilton (1), B. Clayton (2), J. B. Parkinson (1), Capt. Lyster, R.E. (1) and Cranfield (2). Two others are also likely to be the work of Thomas Cranfield.

Views include two calotype studies of Mitchelstoun Castle, Co. Cork, property of Lord Kingston, dated 1849. It is known that the Rev. Calvert Jones visited there ten years earlier, when he made sketches, and it seems likely these photographs may also have been made by him on a later visit. Other early subjects include a calotype study of Balleen Castle by Clayton and a series of fifteen salt prints from negatives taken in Newcastle, Jamaica including portraits of West Indians, views of the barracks and Fort Charles. Larger views include Captain Fowler's house at Port Louis, Mauritius; Woolas Hall, Worcs.; 'Haslewood', the seat of Owen [.......]; Conway Castle; Eldon House, Dorsetshire; and four French scenes at Tours, Dieppe and on the Seine, all from paper negatives.