Elspeth King

Last updated
Elspeth King
Dr Elspeth King holding a bust of Robert Owen (1771-1858), co-operator and reformer.jpg
Dr Elspeth King holding a bust of Robert Owen (1771-1858), co-operator and reformer
Born
Nationality Scottish
Alma mater University of Leicester
Occupation(s)Social historian, curator and writer
Known forCurator at People's Palace, Glasgow and Director of the Stirling Smith Art Gallery and Museum

Stirling Smith Museum, of which Dr King was Director Stirling - The Smith Institute Museum 20120419.jpg
Stirling Smith Museum, of which Dr King was Director

Dr Elspeth King is a Scottish curator, writer and social historian. She is known for her role as curator of social history at the People's Palace Museum in Glasgow, as Director the Stirling Smith Art Gallery and Museum, and for her scholarship on the Scottish Suffrage movement.

Contents

Education and career

King was born into a mining family in Lochore, Fife. [1] She studied Medieval History at University of St Andrews, graduating with First Class Honours. [2] She went on to complete a post-graduate course in Museum Studies at University of Leicester. [1]

In 1974, King joined the People's Palace, in Glasgow as a curator, where she remained for the next 16 years. During her tenure exhibitions such as Scotland Sober and Free, the 150th anniversary of the Temperance Movement, and Michael Donnelly's 1981 exhibition of stained glass, gained record attendances. [2] The People's Palace won European Museum of the Year in 1981 and the British Museum of the Year award in 1983. [3]

Her pet cat Smudge became very well known in Glasgow during her time working there. [4]

In 1990, King was passed over for the civic post of keeper of social history. This decision was considered controversial by many, and was the subject of an appeal under the council's grievance process. [2] [3] [5] [6]

King left Glasgow to take on the role of director of the Dunfermline Heritage Trust, [5] [7] where she helped to oversee the restoration as a heritage centre of Abbot House, [8] the oldest secular building in the town. [9]

In 1994, King joined the Smith Art Gallery Museum in Stirling as its first director, where she remained until her retirement in August 2018. [7] The museum had been threatened with closure earlier in the year due to funding cuts. [10] However, a petition was mounted to combat this decision and gained over 7000 signatures after which the museum received a reprieve. [11] [12]

Honours

King was made an Honorary Doctor of the University of Stirling in 2005 for her "outstanding work in developing Scottish museums and in promoting Scottish history and culture". [13] [14]

Written works

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dunfermline</span> City in Fife, Scotland

Dunfermline is a city, parish, and former royal burgh in Fife, Scotland, on high ground 3 miles (5 km) from the northern shore of the Firth of Forth. The city currently has an estimated population of 58,508. According to the National Records of Scotland, the greater Dunfermline area has a population of 76,210.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">People's Palace, Glasgow</span> Museum and glasshouse in Glasgow Green, Glasgow, Scotland

The People's Palace and Winter Gardens in Glasgow, Scotland, is a museum and glasshouse situated in Glasgow Green, and was opened on 22 January 1898 by The 5th Earl of Rosebery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Smudge (People's Palace cat)</span> Cat at the Peoples Palace museum, Glasgow

Smudge was a Scottish cat who became a minor celebrity in Glasgow. She was employed by the People's Palace museum in Glasgow Green to deal with a rodent problem in 1979.

Helen Burness Cruickshank was a Scottish poet and suffragette and a focal point of the Scottish Renaissance. Scottish writers associated with the movement met at her home in Corstorphine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jessie M. King</span> Scottish illustrator (1875–1949)

Jessie Marion King was a Scottish illustrator known for her illustrated children's books. She also designed bookplates, jewellery and fabric, and painted pottery. King was one of the artists known as the Glasgow Girls. She was described in 1927 in the Aberdeen Press and Journal as "the pioneer of batik in Great Britain".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murray Grigor</span>

William Alexander Murray Grigor is a Scottish film-maker, writer, artist, exhibition curator and amateur architect who has served as director of the Edinburgh International Film Festival. He has made over 50 films with a focus on arts and architecture.

<i>Cencrastus</i>

Cencrastus was a magazine devoted to Scottish and international literature, arts and affairs, founded after the Referendum of 1979 by students, mainly of Scottish literature at Edinburgh University, and with support from Cairns Craig, then a lecturer in the English Department, with the express intention of perpetuating the devolution debate. It was published three times a year. Its founders were Christine Bold, John Burns, Bill Findlay, Sheila G. Hearn, Glen Murray and Raymond J. Ross. Editors included Glen Murray (1981–1982), Sheila G. Hearn (1982–1984), Geoff Parker (1984–1986) and Cairns Craig (1987). Raymond Ross was publisher and editor of the magazine for nearly 20 years (1987–2006). Latterly the magazine was published with the help of a grant from the Scottish Arts Council. It ceased publication in 2006.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scottish art</span> Visual art made in what is now Scotland, or about Scottish subjects, since prehistoric times

Scottish art is the body of visual art made in what is now Scotland, or about Scottish subjects, since prehistoric times. It forms a distinctive tradition within European art, but the political union with England has led its partial subsumation in British art.

Scotland has produced many films, directors and actors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jessie Stephen</span> British suffragette (1893–1979)

Jessie Stephen, MBE was a twentieth-century British suffragette, labour activist and local councillor. She grew up in Scotland and won a scholarship to train as a teacher. Family finances dictated otherwise, leading to her becoming a domestic worker at the age of 15. She became involved in national labour issues as a teenager, via organisations such as the Independent Labour Party and the Women's Social and Political Union. Stephen moved to London during World War I and in the 1920s she toured the United States and Canada, where she held meetings with the public including migrant English domestic workers.

John Duncan Macmillan is a Scottish art historian, art critic, and writer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eunice Murray</span> Murray, Eunice Guthrie (1878–1960), suffragist and author

Eunice Guthrie Murray MBE was a Scottish suffrage campaigner, author and historian. She was a leading figure in the Women's Freedom League in Scotland. Murray was the only Scottish woman in the first UK general election open to women in 1918.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Janet McCallum (suffragette)</span>

Janet "Jenny" McCallum or Janet Richardson was a Scottish trade unionist and working-class suffragette in a movement which was predominantly made up of middle and upper-class activists.

George Bruce OBE was a Scottish poet and radio journalist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glasgow and West of Scotland Association for Women's Suffrage</span> Glasgow based womens suffrage association

The Glasgow and West of Scotland Association for Women’s Suffrage was an organisation involved in campaigning for women’s suffrage, based in Glasgow, with members from all over the west of Scotland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elizabeth Margaret Pace</span> Scottish physician and suffragette

Dr Elizabeth Pace was a Scottish medical doctor, suffragist and advocate for women's health and women's rights.

Dr Alice McLaren was a Scottish medical doctor, gynecologist, suffragist and advocate for women's health and women's rights. She was the first woman medical practitioner in Glasgow.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grace Paterson</span> Scottish suffragist, temperance activist and educationalist

Grace Chalmers Paterson was a campaigner, suffragist, temperance activist and educationalist.

Janet Hinshaw Caird was a teacher and a 20th-century writer of Scottish mysteries, poems, and short stories. Daughter of Peter Kirkwood, a missionary, and Janet Kirkwood, she was born in Livingstonia, Malawi, and educated in Scotland. She attended Dollar Academy in Dollar, Clackmannanshire, and the University of Edinburgh, graduating with a Master of Arts in English literature in 1935 before further study at the University of Grenoble and the Sorbonne in 1935–36.

Bill Findlay was a Scottish writer and theatre academic. As a translator, editor, critic and advocate, he made an important contribution to Scottish theatre. He worked as a lecturer in the School of Drama at Edinburgh's Queen Margaret University and was a founder editor and regular contributor to the Scottish and international literature, arts and affairs magazine, Cencrastus.

References

  1. 1 2 "Behind the Scenes at the Museum | Pocketmags.com". pocketmags.com. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
  2. 1 2 3 "Why Elspeth King paid the price of a Palace revolution". HeraldScotland. Retrieved 31 May 2018.
  3. 1 2 Gray, Alasdair (1991). "Cities of Culture: A Warning from Glasgow a Friend Unfairly Treated". The Irish Review (10): 91–94. doi:10.2307/29735590. ISSN   0790-7850. JSTOR   29735590.
  4. "Mongrel cat is museum's most famous exhibit". UPI. Retrieved 4 July 2020.
  5. 1 2 "New post at Stirling for Elspeth King". HeraldScotland. Retrieved 31 May 2018.
  6. "Elspeth King affair takes another twist". HeraldScotland. Retrieved 30 May 2018.
  7. 1 2 "Museum Boss Retiring". Stirling Observer. 24 January 2018.
  8. Cockburn, Henry (27 March 1994). "A model occasion in Fife - Diary". The Sunday Times.
  9. Coleman, Russel (1996). "Excavations at the Abbot's House, Maygate, Dunfermline" (PDF). Tayside and Fife Archaeological Journal. 2: 70.
  10. "Smith Art Gallery and Museum faces closure after funding threat" . Retrieved 30 May 2018.
  11. Marjoribanks, Kaiya (26 January 2018). "Thousands sign petition to save Stirling art gallery from budget cuts". dailyrecord. Retrieved 30 May 2018.
  12. "Funding reprieve for orchestra and museum". BBC News. 6 February 2018. Retrieved 30 May 2018.
  13. "News archive for February 2005 | University of Stirling". www.stir.ac.uk. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
  14. "1998 - 2007 | About". University of Stirling. Retrieved 4 July 2020.