Museum book of treasures
New up-to-date colour catalogue
After 80 years and more, a new catalogue has been published for the collection at the Smith Art Gallery and Museum.
The 94-page publication by the Smith’s director Dr Elspeth King and Michael McGinnes takes the place of the old 1934 catalogue which had only two photographs in its 200 pages.
The new work has 255 photographs in full colour, showing different aspects of the collection to full advantage.
Regular readers of the Stirling Observer will already know the Stirling Smith collections, through the Stirling Stories column which has run every week without a break since November, 2004. In all that time, there has been no repetition in any of the 700 images featured. Observer readers are often the first to know about new additions to the collections.
The new catalogue has been produced by Elspeth, who retires in August 2018 after 24 years as director of the Smith, and curator Michael McGinnes who has cared for the Stirling Smith collections since 1979.
Funding for the publication came from the legacies of the late Margaret Sowter (1918-2016) and farmer Willie More from Mains of Boquhan, who died in 2010.
Earlier this year there was a public outcry over a proposed £242,000 cut to the Smith in Stirling Council’s budget options, putting the venue at threat of closure.
The situation sparked a 9000signature ‘Save Our Smith’ petition amidst an outpouring of support for the museum which led councillors insisting officials took the option off the table.
While a difficult time for everyone involved with the Smith, the campaign was a massive display of the regard in which it is held locally, nationally and even globally.
Speaking of the catalogue project, Elspeth said: “I wanted a publication to encapsulate the best of the Smith Charles Edward Stuart, painted from the life by Cosmo Alexander and its collections, which could take the Smith to all parts of the world, and of which the many people who have contributed to the Smith could feel proud.
“I’ve had the privilege of serving the people of Stirling for 24 years and the joy of working with Michael, one of the most experienced museum curators in Scotland. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then most of the work in this book is by Michael McGinnes who has been responsible for taking the Smith from the era of hand-written card cataloguing to full digitisation.”
The book covers the story of art in Stirling, the civic treasures of the burgh, the collections relating to Wallace, Bruce, the Jacobites, the material held for some of the 44 different Stirlingshire communities, and much more.
Dr David Mitchell, the new chairman of the Stirling Smith Trustees, said: “From the Gilbert and Sullivan Gates built in Stirling for the Savoy Hotel, Embankment, London, 1990, to the long-lost portrait (1827) of Simon Bolivar, ‘the Wallace of South America’, the master portrait (1697) of composer Arcangelo Corelli and the library dedicated to ‘Don Roberto’ (Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham), the Smith has works of national and international importance.
“Some of the local objects, which include the world’s oldest curling stone (1511) and football (1540) are of global significance too. I commend the Stirling Smith and this publication.”
Priced £9.99, the book is available from the Stirling Smith and from Waterstones in the Thistles.
The Stirling Observer has six books to give away to readers, simply tell us:
I wanted a publication to encapsulate the best of the Smith and its collections