The Stirling Smith Girl, Marie Louise Wrightson

With the New Year comes a new face at the Smith. The Stirling Smith Girl is the creation of artist Marie Louise Wrightson, done as homage to J G Mathieson’s Stirling Girl of 1928, which in turn honoured the Gibson Girl of the 1890s. The Stirling Smith Girl is a

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Thomas Stuart Smith

145 years ago today, the artist Thomas Stuart Smith died in a hotel in Avignon. The death was sudden and unexpected. He had planned to be in Stirling to personally superintend the building of the Smith Institute in 1870-71, but he died of ‘apoplexy’ following a cold. He was buried

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The Real Stirling Christmas, The Drummond Tract Depot

This illustration of the birth of Jesus with the shepherds in attendance in the cattle shed is a classic pre-War illustration from The Greatest Story Ever, printed by the Drummond Tract Depot or Stirling Tract Enterprise. The Drummond Family, as seed merchants and agricultural improvers, did much to shape the

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Santa the Bruce – Stirling Christmas Cards

With three more posting days to Christmas, take a look at this Stirling card of 2004 which was in MP Anne McGuire’s annual Christmas Card Competition. Christmas cards have changed in the last ten years. The ecard market has grown; messaging on social media platforms is free and popular; schools

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Stirling from the Castle, 1908, Watercolour by T Nichol

  This watercolour of 1908 is a new gift to the Stirling Smith collections by Susan Power. Nothing is known of the artist T. Nichol. He is absent from the usual exhibition lists and art dictionaries, but this work shows him to be an artist of considerable talent. The view

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The Art of Ailsa Black

    The end of a significant year for Stirling, and the historic, 140th anniversary year for the Stirling Smith Art Gallery and Museum, will be brought to a colourful conclusion by an exhibition of the work of the Scottish artist Ailsa Black. Weather forecasters have promised a snow- free

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St Fillan’s chain, from a healing pool at Killin

The six links of the chain of St. Fillan, Killin, in the Stirling Smith collections are not much to look at, but they can be counted among the treasures of the Smith. They caught the imagination of a group of students at the University of Western Australia who made a

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Stirling Castle Quilters

The Stirling Castle Quilters were established twenty years ago, following a major exhibition on Scottish quilting at the Stirling Smith. They are celebrating their achievements in a Smith exhibition which runs until the end of the month. There are over 60 colourful quilts, with many hangings, cushions, bags and other

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Lecropt Kirk, Remembrance Window, Bridge of Allan

Most stained glass windows are about remembrance. Today’s story concerns a detail of the magnificent four light chancel window, the gift of Lawrence Pullar in 1911, in the historic Lecropt Kirk, Bridge of Allan. The subject is taken from Psalm 150, ‘Praise God in his sanctuary…..Praise Him with the sound

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Remembering WW1

LINES written to Private A. DRUMMOND as a token of esteem, from a chum in the Black Watch, being the combined thanks for the splendid sacrifice when giving some of his own blood to save a brother comrade, while in an American Hospital in France. JUST a line or twa,

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