Encountering the Victorian railway

Our Railway 200 Fair weekend gave visitors to the museum the opportunity to explore the marvels of the railway as tourists to Scotland might have done in Victorian times. The recent acquisition of two wonderfully characterful late Victorian sketches by Surgeon Major Alexander Hunter FRSE FRS (1816-1890), give us the sense of how curiously contemporary Scots might have encountered a landscape changed dramatically by the spread of the railways.

Titled ‘Ladies at the Railway Station, Glasgow’ and ‘Figures at the Railway Station, Glasgow’, the drawings are full of character and humour. They capture the commuting culture that had grown up in Glasgow during Hunter’s long absence abroad, and provide a snapshot of daily life around Glasgow’s railways circa 1870s. They also tell a wider story of the networked spread of Scottish Enlightenment principles in the colonial era. These pieces join our growing collection of railway artworks. In line with our 5-year plan, the archive team are now working in close contact with the Royal Scottish Academy to develop ways to secure and make accessible this unique collection to the public.