The Scottish Exhibition of National History, Art and Industry was held in Glasgow in 1911. It was the third of 4 international exhibitions held in

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

, Scotland during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Summary

The exhibition followed the lead of the previous two exhibitions ( Glaswegian exhibition (1888) and

Glasgow International Exhibition (1901) The Glasgow International Exhibition was the second of 4 international exhibitions held in Glasgow, Scotland during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The exhibition took place during a period of half-mourning requested by Edward VII but ...

) and took place at

Kelvingrove Park Kelvingrove Park is a public park located on the River Kelvin in the West End of the city of Glasgow, Scotland, containing the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum. History Kelvingrove Park was originally created as the West End Park in 1852, a ...

. It ran from 2 May to 4 November 1911, and recorded over 9.3 million visits. The aim of the event was to fund a Chair of Scottish History and Literature at the

University of Glasgow The University of Glasgow (abbreviated as ''Glas.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals; ) is a Public university, public research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded by papal bull in , it is the List of oldest universities in continuous ...

, with the Exhibition Prospectus quoting the resolution of a March 1909 meeting: ''"the time had fully arrived when Scottish history should be placed on a differing plane from that which it had hitherto occupied in the education of the rising generations."'' Although the size of this National exhibition was largely similar to that of its International predecessors, it garnered little attention from the London-based national press.

Exhibits

The fair was held close to the

River Kelvin The River Kelvin () is a tributary of the River Clyde in northern and northeastern Glasgow, Scotland. It rises on the moor south east of the village of Banton, Scotland, Banton, east of Kilsyth. At almost long, it initially flows south to D ...

structured around the Stewart Memorial and included a Palaces of History (based on the

Falkland Palace Falkland Palace, in Falkland, Fife, Scotland, is a royal palace of the Scottish kings. It was one of the favourite places of Mary, Queen of Scots, who took refuge there from political and religious turmoil of her times. Today it is under th ...

, Industries, and Art, a Concert Hall and an Aviation Building as well as exhibits of Decorative Art. The site used was further east than the 1911 event, and excluded

Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum is a museum and art gallery in Glasgow, Scotland, managed by Glasgow Museums. The building is located in Kelvingrove Park in the West End of the city, adjacent to Argyle Street. Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Mu ...

. Entertainments included boat trips, an aerial railway and a ''Highland Village'' (from which a

cairn A cairn is a human-made pile (or stack) of stones raised for a purpose, usually as a marker or as a burial mound. The word ''cairn'' comes from the (plural ). Cairns have been and are used for a broad variety of purposes. In prehistory, t ...

marking the village remains). In addition to the Highlanders in the Highland Village, the event also featured other displays of people, from both Lapland and West Africa. The latter comprised around 100 individuals, including children, from

Equatorial Africa Equatorial Africa is an ambiguous term that sometimes is used to refer to the equatorial region of sub-Saharan Africa traversed by the Equator, more broadly to tropical Africa, or in a biological and geo-environmental sense to the intra-tropic ...

, the

French Congo The French Congo (), also known as Middle Congo (), was a French colony which at one time comprised the present-day area of the Republic of the Congo and parts of Gabon, and the Central African Republic. In 1910, it was made part of the larger ...

Dahomey The Kingdom of Dahomey () was a West African List of kingdoms in Africa throughout history, kingdom located within present-day Benin that existed from approximately 1600 until 1904. It developed on the Abomey Plateau amongst the Fon people in ...

and

Sudan Sudan, officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northeast Africa. It borders the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, Libya to the northwest, Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the east, Eritrea and Ethiopi ...

. Their performances of religious ceremonies, singing, and dancing were popular, despite some objections at the time that the inclusion of these human exhibits lowered the serious quality of the Exhibition. The language of the exhibition pamphlet (Souvenir of a Visit to the West African Colonies')'' reveals racist attitudes toward these groups as primitive, or unclean, and discussed their countries mainly in terms of what benefit they brought to the colonising country.

Legacy and remnants

The land upon which the exhibition sat is now still in use as Kelvingrove Park. Profits from the fair successfully funded the establishment of a Chair of Scottish History and Literature at the University of Glasgow in 1913; the post originally being filled by

Robert Rait Sir Robert Sangster Rait (10 February 1874 – 25 May 1936) was a Scottish historian, Historiographer Royal and Principal of the University of Glasgow. Early life Rait was born in 1874 in Narborough, Leicestershire to Scottish parents, altho ...

Popular culture

Neil Munro gives a satirical account of a visit by Erchie MacPherson and his wife Jinnet to the exhibition in his story "The MacPhersons at the "Ex"", first published in the ''

Glasgow Evening News The ''Glasgow Evening News'' was an important Scottish newspaper in the early 20th century. It was founded as the ''Glasgow Evening Post'' in 1866 and became the ''Evening News'' in 1915. In 1922, Gomer Berry (later 1st Viscount Kemsley) bought ...

'' of 29th May 1911.Munro, Neil, ""The MacPhersons at the "Ex"", in Osborne, Brian D. & Armstrong, Ronald (eds.), ''Erchie, My Droll Friend'',

Birlinn limited Birlinn Limited is an independent publishing house based in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was established in 1992 by managing director Hugh Andrew. Imprints Birlinn Limited is composed of a number of imprints, including: *Birlinn, which publishes Sc ...

, Edinburgh, pp. 399 - 404,

References

External links