The Stirling Smith Collections
The Stirling Smith is the home of a significant collection of rare and unique artefacts, spanning centuries of Scottish, British and World history. The collection is managed by the Smith's three full-time curatorial staff, and contains many remarkable objects, including a great many items of interest from the worlds of social history, ethnography, women's history, natural history, and fine art.
The Smith holds one of the most important collections in Scotland, and the exhibits which are on display are visited by guests from all over the world. We have a permanent exhibition on the premises, The Stirling Story, which recounts the history of the city of Stirling from its earliest origins through to present day. The Stirling Story has many important objects from Stirling's past and present in the displays, and additions are made on a regular basis. Here can be discovered the works of Christian Maclagan, Britain's first female archaeologist, the striking artwork of Joseph Denovan Adam, artefacts from the Stirling Guildry and Seven Incorporated Trades of Stirling, marble busts of local people, and a great many more items, both unique and ordinary.
Special Collections
The Stirling Smith has a number of
Special Collections, which include:
- Exclusive collection of the works of Thomas Stuart
Smith (1814-1869), founder of the Smith Institute, including portraits,
landscapes, oils and watercolours.
- Quality collection of 19th century watercolours made
by Thomas Stuart Smith of his contemporaries – J.D Harding, David Cox
and Elijah Walton.
- Sketches by Sir George Harvey PRSA (1806-1876), which
comprises a portrait gallery of the ordinary people of Stirling in the
1830s and 40s. 82 works.
- Collection of 31 watercolours by Jane Ann Wright
(1842-1922) of the buildings and mansion houses of Stirlingshire. Of
architectural and social importance.
- Collection relating to Jacobitism in Stirlingshire (1740-1840).
- Collection relating to the story of William Wallace
(1274-1305), 18th–20th centuries. 300 images digitised for
SCRAN.
- Collection relating to Robert Bontine Cunninghame
Graham MP (1882– 1936), Laird of Gartmore, writer, novelist, horseman,
traveller, socialist, founder of the Scottish Labour Party 1888, and the
National Party of Scotland 1928.
- Collection of spectacles and reading glasses, 18th
and 19th centuries, 100 items.
- Collection of seaweeds made by Alexander Croall
(1808-1885), first curator of the Smith and author of the definitive
work, British Seaweeds (1860), c1500 items.
- Collection of domestic and church pewter, recognised by the British Pewterer’s Society as one of the collections of significance in Scotland.
Star Items in the Stirling Smith Collections
Stirling in the time of the Stuarts,
c 1660
by Johannes Vosterman (1643-1699) with figures by Thomas Van Wyck (1616-1677)
Painting, oil on canvas 545 x 1055 mm
The first town view of Stirling in colour by court painter to King Charles II, showing the structure of the town, castle, King’s Park, King’s Knot and their relationship to the River Forth.
Prince Charles Edward Stuart
by Cosmo Alexander (1724-1772)
Painting, oil on canvas 700 x 562 mm
Painted from the life, in Rome, in 1746, this painting was owned by the Seton Stuarts of Touch and is one of the finest representations of Prince Charles.
Arcangelo Corelli (1653-1713), composer and violinist
by Hugh Howard (1675-1735)
Painting, oil on canvas 335 x 565 mm
This was Howard’s masterwork, painted in Rome in 1698, was used in his studio to attract further commissions, and is the source of all other paintings and engravings of Corelli, who had a strong influence on contemporary Scottish music.
The Pipe of Freedom
by Thomas Stuart Smith (1814-1869)
Painting, oil on canvas 1068 x 787 mm
One of three paintings by Smith showing black subjects, and very unusual in a Scottish museum collection in spite of the national participation in the slave trade, this work celebrates the Abolition of Slavery in America in 1869. Smith’s contemporaries thought the subject inappropriate, and the Royal Academy refused it from their Salon exhibition of that year.
Sliver of mutton bone, 1853
This was lodged in the throat of three year old James Drummond from 8 March until 28 June 1853, when it was released by Professor Syme in Stirling’s first recorded tracheotomy.
It is nothing to look at and has no monetary value, but the future of the Drummonds,
Stirling’s principle philanthropists, was dependent upon its successful removal, and it made medical history.
We insert it in this list as a sharp reminder of the importance of thousands of similar objects in social history collections in Scottish museums.
The Mussel Beds of Villerville, 1875
by Maurice Poirson (1850-1882)
Painting, oil on canvas 1700 x 2765 mm
Recent research has shown this to be the master work and the largest extant painting of Poirson, who died young. It was a medal winner in the Paris Salon of 1875. With its heroic scale and subject matter it would be at home in the Musee D’Orsay and it is one of the international star attractions of the Stirling Smith.
Black Beast Wanderer
by Joseph Denovan Adam (1842-1896)
Painting , oil on canvas 335 x 505 mm
Denovan Adam ran Scotland’s only school of animal painting, at Cambuskenneth, and this highly accomplished work celebrates, in one frame, the traditional small black Highland cattle (the wealth of Scotland in the 18th century and the ‘black mail’ of the MacGregors) and the Scottish terrain and weather in which they had evolved.
A Bit of Cheese
by Henrietta Ronner (1821-1909)
Painting, oil on canvas 490 x 610 mm
‘The Queen of Cat Painters’ was known throughout Europe, as she painted the pets of royal households. What makes this painting a star was its commission in Scotland (note `The Scotsman` on the table), probably by Leon Jablonski Platt (1839-1914) Stirling’s first resident dentist who bequeathed his collections to the Smith.
Sheba, the Night and the Moon
by Eric Robertson, 1913
Painting, oil on canvas 595 x 644 mm
This is an engagement portrait of the renowned Scottish artist Cecile Walton (1891-1956) who with her husband Eric was one of the moving spirits of the Symbolist school based in Edinburgh in the early 20th century.
Prototype model Engine c 1800-1810
Miniature steam engine, made by William Murdoch, and illustrating a short-lived improvement in steam propulsion. It is one of three prototypes of its kind.
The other two are in the Science Museum.
Bruce and de Bohun
by John Duncan (1866-1945)
Painting, oil on canvas 1000 x 1510 mm
This iconic painting was an entry in the national competition to celebrate the six hundredth anniversary of the Battle of Bannockburn, 24 June 1314. It was bequeathed by the artist to the Smith.
Headsman’s Cloak and Axe, 1820
Worn and used by the medical student employed to decapitate the Radical weavers John Baird and Andrew Hardie after the abortive Radical Rising of 1820, after their death by hanging, at the Tolbooth of Stirling.
The 1820 Rising is one of the great landmarks in the history of politics and democratic development in Scotland.
The Stirling Jug, 1457
Scottish liquid measurement established by Act of Parliament 1457 and awarded to Stirling as the centre of a brewing area. This particular piece was made at Edinburgh Castle in 1508-1510, in bronze, in three parts, and holds just over three liquid pints or 1.7 litres.
The Stirling Jug has always been a symbol of municipal and civic identity, and was carried in the various Wallace Monument processions in the 19th Century.
Information from ADC Simpson, formerly of the National Museums of Scotland.
Football c 1540
Made of leather and inflated by a pig’s bladder interior, it was discovered lodged in the rafters of Stirling Castle, and is thought to be the oldest football in the world.
Curling Stone, dated 1511
Basalt, inscribed ‘St J SB Stirling 1511’ this is for long believed to be the oldest curling stone in the world, among the curling fraternity. Many people visit the Smith to see it.