During a 1908 trip to Great Britain, photographers Frances and Mary Allen of Deerfield, Massachusetts, traveled to Roxburghshire, Scotland, where they photographed Melrose Abbey. The gothic arches, lancet windows, and flying buttress in stone were a vivid contrast to these New England women accustomed to colonial wooden buildings. Soon after their return home, this photograph was included in an exhibition of their work at The Art Institute of Chicago.