Local Heroes: The Stirling Smith

The Stirling Smith Girl by Marie Louise Wrightson, 2014. Commissioned to celebrate the richness of the Smith collections.

The Stirling Smith Girl by Marie Louise Wrightson, 2014. Commissioned to celebrate the richness of the Smith collections.

Built in the reign of Queen Victoria, the Stirling Smith Museum and Art Gallery first opened to the public in August 1874. Originally ‘the Smith Institute’, it was founded as a gallery of contemporary art, with a museum and library reading room ‘for the benefit of the inhabitants of Stirling, Dunblane and Kinbuck’. The Smith, with resident cat, Oswald, remains Stirling’s artistic and cultural heart in 2015, and is this week’s Local Hero too. We spoke to director Elspeth King, to find out what makes the Stirling Smith so special.

The beating heart of the Smith is its 14-strong team and many volunteers: ‘Most staff work part time to provide coverage, some for just a few hours a week, like organic gardener Martin Macrae – his volunteer team keep the two-acre grounds looking fresh, neat and welcoming.  Three of us work full time to deliver the museums and gallery service for the Stirling Council (our main funding body) area. We rely greatly on volunteers such as Alan Wilson, who has volunteered for three years and delivered a powerful amount of computer cataloguing. Two undergraduates recently researched the bank note collection, writing a mini world-history through these notable notes. Intern James Wedlake, in just six months, researched the work of artist Hugh Green (1892-1972) and produced a major loans exhibition and catalogue.’

Nursery class visitors

Nursery class visitors

Unusually for a Scottish Museum, all of the current employees are Scottish and live in the area: ‘Many have provided long service too,’ notes Elspeth, ‘which is so important for the development of the collections. The Smith has had only eight professional curators in 140 years. Collections Curator Michael McGinnes has brought the records from hand-written cards and pencil drawings to complete digitisation over his 35 years here. I’ve worked here for 21 years, building the social history collections and highlighting aspects of Stirling’s story through the temporary exhibitions programme. Museum Assistant Evelyn Cameron, with nearly ten years’ service, brings local knowledge to the job of welcoming visitors, and her catering talents to our special events.’

There have been many popular events: ‘The centenary exhibition for the artist Joseph Denovan Adam (1841-1896) in 1996 was a show-stopper, for example, as, like the artist, we had a collection of animals (two highland bullocks, seven sheep and three goats) for visitors to paint. Housed in pens in the grounds, they attracted attention for almost a year, not least due to the BSE crisis. Lead Highlander Hamish ­– the Smith’s ‘publicity coo’ – served out his time at Kilmahog Woollen Mill, and died last year at the ripe old age of 21.’

But it’s often difficult to predict what will be popular: ‘During the 500th anniversary exhibition for Renaissance scholar George Buchanan (1506 – 1582) in 2006, we ran a series of Saturday Latin classes which were packed to capacity with people wanting to re-engage with classical studies. While for the nursery schools coming here, the most popular exhibits remain the musical instruments in Ailie’s Garden.’

The Smith has many treasures and has agreed to loans world-wide. This autumn, three paintings by the Glasgow Boys will be loaned to Drents Museum in the Netherlands. But often, the most valueless item can be the most interesting: ‘For me it is the mutton bone removed from baby James Drummond’s throat in 1853, in Stirling’s first recorded tracheotomy,’ says Elspeth. ‘The collections are a joy to work with, and the reason for the Smith’s existence. Rich and varied, the artist, Marie Louise Wrightson has summarised them in her 2014 painting ‘The Stirling Smith Girl’.

The best thing about the Smith? ‘When people identify with the exhibits and relate their own experiences to them.  At the moment, our exhibition, “The Battle for Polmaise” commemorates the local coal mine, thirty years after the end of the 1984-5 Miners’ Strike. Many visitors from former mining areas have been so delighted to see their history in the Smith they have donated to the collections or shared reminiscences – the exhibition has even helped several people with dementia or memory problems to remember. People always have pleasure in identifying objects from their shared past, and it can be something as ordinary as the once-universal pit towel and laundry bag, or a poker and toasting fork.’

The Smith and Hamish the Highlander, by Stirling-based artist Greer Ralston, 1996.

The Smith and Hamish the Highlander, by Stirling-based artist Greer Ralston, 1996.

When asked how important the Stirling Smith is to Stirling and its people, Elspeth speaks with passion: ‘The Smith contains the material culture which makes Stirling, Stirling – the Stirling Jug (granted by Act of Parliament, 1453), the Cowane’s Chest of 1636, the figure of Justice (pre-1560) from the Tolbooth, the cloak and axe used by the executioner in 1820.  These, and hundreds of other things, distinguish Stirling from other towns: the identity of Stirling is invested in them. Stirling has had many past identities – royal court, carriage-building town, market town, tryst, publishing town – all of which are represented in the Smith’s collections. We think of the Smith as the Aricept which will guard against community forgetfulness and loss of identity.’

And is it relevant to overseas visitors? ‘If overseas visitors go to the Castle, the Wallace Monument and Bannockburn, they will pick up a lot of information on Scottish history, but learn little about Stirling as a town. The Stirling Smith looks at the broader picture of Stirling’s history, providing a clearer picture of Stirling’s significant place in Scotland’s history. In a nutshell, we like to say “Think you know Stirling?  You haven’t seen Stirling until you’ve seen the Smith.”