The Foulis Exhibition at the Examination Hall, University of Glasgow, 1913

The Foulis Exhibition was held at the University of Glasgow, in 1913, and was organised by the Glasgow Bibliographical Society. It ran from the 12th to the 26th of April. An account of the opening ceremony was published, along with a description of the exhibits. There also is a forty-page catalogue, which was printed for the Society by James MacLehose and Sons, publishers to the University of Glasgow.

 

The exhibition was divided into five sections: Printing in Glasgow, 1638-1742; The Foulis Press; Alexander Wilson, Typefounder; Personalia; and The Foulis Academy of Arts. There were more than 270 exhibits, and the list of lenders numbers 70, the most generous of whom were David Murray LL.D, and Dr. William Gemmell. Murray was the Society’s President, and Gemmell was a committee member and also one of the five-strong Foulis Exhibition Committee.

 

There was a loan of 40 of James Tassie’s portrait medallions, including: David Dale; Professor John Anderson; Robert and Mrs. Dunmore and Children; William Cullen M.D. Professor Francis Hutcheson; and Professor Joseph Black. This collection belonged to the Corporation of Glasgow (now Glasgow Life). David Allan’s portrait of James Tassie was on display, as was Tassie’s portrait medallion of Allan, and there were numerous examples of Allan’s work including eight “designs composed and engraved” to illustrate Alexander Campbell’s Sangs of the Lowlands of Scotland, 1799, and fifteen proof impressions of illustrations for George Thomson’s Select Melodies of Scotland.