Benjamin Turner was one of the first, and remains one of the greatest, British amateur photographers. He began practising photography in 1849 according to the technique patented in 1841 by the British inventor W. H. Fox Talbot (1800-1877). Turner's photographs were 'contact' printed from paper negatives (known as calotypes) of the same size as the print. He printed them on albumen paper, which is paper that has been floated on an emulsion of egg white containing light-sensitive silver salts. Between 1852 and 1854 Turner compiled 60 of his own photographs, including this one, in what is believed to be a unique album, 'Photographic Views from Nature'. It might have been a sample book, a convenient method for presenting photographs for personal pleasure, and for showing to colleagues or potential exhibitors. It remained in the Turner family until it was bought by the Museum.

Whitby Abbey occupies a dramatic position on the cliffs above the fishing town of Whitby. Along with many other monastic settlements, it was forcibly closed in the 1530s, the consequence of the ‘Dissolution of the Monasteries’ demanded by the Protestant monarch, Henry VIII. It was one of a number of abandoned and ruinous abbeys in Yorkshire that became a favourite subject for visiting artists in the 18th century and later. These sites also attracted Victorian tourists.