The photographic Souvenir de L'Expedition Allemande Envoyee a Ispahan pour Observer a Passage de Venus, 1874 once belonged to Major-General Sir Robert Murdoch Smith K.C.M.G (1835-1900).

Robert Murdoch Smith was born in Kilmarnock on 18 August 1835. He was educated at Kilmarnock Academy and studied at Glasgow University. He was a Lieutenant in the Royal Engineers, 1855, and a Major-General by 1887. Smith was an executive officer with Sir Charles Newton's Archaeological Expedition in Asia Minor, 1856-1859. He explored the Cyrenaice (North Africa, ancient-Greek Libya) and made successful excavations at Cyrene (now Shahhat, Libya), 1860-1861. Smith was Director of the Government Indo-European Telegraph Department, Persian Section, and subsequently Director-in-Chief of the whole Department, 1863-1885. He was sent on special duty to Persia (Iran) by the Foreign Office in 1887. He was also Director of the Museum of Science and Art, Edinburgh (now the Royal Museum of Scotland) and a member of the Board of Trustees and Commissioners for Manufactures. Major-General Sir Robert Murdoch Smith died on 3 July 1900.