Scholar – Glasgow Museums Art Donors Group

Annie Isabella Cameron was born at 16 Grafton Square, Glasgow on 10 May 1897. Her parents were James Cameron, a civil engineer who had been involved in the construction of the Glasgow Underground and Mary Sinclair Cameron whom he married on Christmas Day 1894 at 42 Church Street, Ayr. ¹ 16 Grafton Square was Annie’s father’s home before his marriage. In 1901, Annie and her two siblings, Donald aged one and Mary four months with their parents were visiting James Gray, a grocer and his family at 60 Church Street, Ayr. ²By 1911 the family had moved to Willbraepark, Overton Road, Strathaven. James Cameron was now aged 62, a civil engineer and contractor, with Mary 44, and children Annie 13, Donald 11, Mary 10 and Ewen 9. The children were all scholars. The family employed one domestic servant. ³ Mary Cameron became the tenant/occupier at Willbraepark after the death of her husband in 1921 and remained there until at least 1925. ⁴

After attending school in Strathaven, Annie Cameron enrolled at Glasgow University and graduated with a first-class honours degree in history in 1919. ⁵ She then undertook teacher training at Jordanhill College in Glasgow. After a brief spell of teaching, she returned to academia to study for a PhD supervised by Professor R.K. Hannay at Edinburgh University. Her subject was James Kennedy, Bishop of St Andrews (1408 – 1465). She completed her PhD in 1924 ⁶and in 1928 was awarded a Carnegie Research Fellowship which enabled her to live in Rome and to attend the Vatican School of Palaeography. In the Vatican Archives she found a rich source of fifteenth century material relating to Scotland, in particular the Scottish Supplications to Rome. The research and publication (from 1934 to 1970) of this material became her life’s work. Her frequent visits to the archives in this connection resulted in her affectionate nickname Nonna (grandmother) of the Archivo Vaticano. ⁷

Figure 1. Dr Annie I. Dunlop (nee Cameron)
National Library of Scotland, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International Licence ⁸

Annie Cameron was awarded a DLitt from the University of St Andrews in 1934 ⁹ and was employed in the Scottish Record Office until she married George Dunlop (qv) on 23 August 1938 at Juniper Green in Edinburgh. ¹⁰ The couple then moved to Dunselma in Fenwick about five miles from Kilmarnock. Annie taught part-time at Edinburgh University and contributed regularly to her husband’s newspaper the Kilmarnock Standard. She was awarded an OBE in the King’s Birthday Honours of 1942 (Annie Isabella Cameron, MA, PhD, DLitt, (Mrs. G. B. Dunlop), Member of the Council of the Scottish History Association). After the war she was able to resume her research in Rome in 1947 – accompanied on this occasion by her husband. She was awarded an honorary LLD from St Andrews University in 1950 – the same year she was widowed. After her husband’s death, Dunselma was given to the Church of Scotland as a residential home for the elderly although Annie continued to live there. Thereafter she travelled widely continuing her research, lecturing and writing. She embarked on a lecture tour of the United States in 1955 promoting Scottish history. ¹¹ She was appointed to the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland on 26 April 1955 and was a member of the Scottish History Society whom she addressed on 12 December 1964 ¹² and the Scottish Church History Society. In 1972 she was awarded the Papal Benemerenti medal by Pope Paul VI. A particularly rare honour especially for a non-Catholic but reflecting the esteem in which she was held by the Vatican. ¹³

Annie I. Dunlop died at Dunselma on 23 March 1973. ¹⁴ Her funeral service was held at Masonhill Crematorium, Ayr on 27 March. ¹⁵ She was remembered as a kind, gentle, diligent personality who was always willing to offer help to others. ¹⁶ She was instrumental in ensuring that her husband’s bequest was delivered to Glasgow and to the National Galleries of Scotland. She also donated paintings on her own behalf to Glasgow’s Hunterian Art gallery.

The Annie Dunlop Endowment was set up at the Centre for Scottish and Celtic Studies at the University of Glasgow. Funds from the endowment are awarded bi-annually for the purpose of ‘promoting historical research into documents relevant to Scotland that are located outside Scotland’.

Figure 2. Roses and Larkspur (Roses et pieds-d’alouette
Henri Fantin-Latour (1836 – 1904)
Hunterian Art Gallery, University of Glasgow/ArtUK
Gift from Annie Dunlop from the estate of her husband, George B. Dunlop, 1951

Figure 3. Fisher’s Landing. William McTaggart (1836-1910).
Hunterian Art Gallery/ArtUK
Gift from Mrs Annie Dunlop, widow of George B. Dunlop, 1951

Figure 4. The Seashore (Sur la plage). Eugene Louis Boudin (1824-1898)
Hunterian Art Gallery, University of Glasgow/ArtUK. Gift from Annie Dunlop, widow of George B. Dunlop, 1951

Figure 5. *Evening Thoughts,* 1864. Robert Inerarity Herdman (1869-1888). Presented to the National Galleries of Scotland by Mrs. Annie Dunlop from the estate of George B. Dunlop, 1951. (ArtUK)

Figure 6. Loch Katrine. John Lavery (1856-1941). National Galleries of Scotland /ArtUK. Presented by Mrs Annie Dunlop from the estate of George B. Dunlop, 1951

Scotland’s People, Birth Certificate
Scotland’s People, Census 1901
Scotland’s People, Census 1911
Scotland’s People, Valuation Roll, Strathaven 1925
Glasgow Herald, 26 March 1973. This is from an obituary which also claims erroneously that she was born in Strathaven and attended the Glasgow High School for Girls.
University of Edinburgh, 17 July 1924, History and Classics, PhD Thesis Collection, https://era.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/1410
Close, Rob, FSA (Scot) Ayrshire Notes No. 2018/1 Spring 2018 ISSN 1474-3, Ayrshire Archaeological & Natural History Society (pub.) in association with Ayrshire Federation of Historical Societies
Frontispiece of Calendar of Papal Letters to Scotland of Clement VII of Avignon, 1378-1394, Scottish History Society
The Apostolic Camera and Scottish Benefices, 1418 – 1488 Humphrey Milford, OUP (pub) for St Andrew’s University 1934
Scotland’s People, Marriage Certificate
Ewan Elizabethet al. The Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women from the earliest times to 2004. Edinburgh University Press, 2007
St. Andrew’s University Archives
Ewan Elizabethet al. The Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women from the earliest times to 2004. Edinburgh University Press, 2007
Scotland’s People, Death Certificate
Glasgow Herald, 24 March 1973
Close, Rob, FSA (Scot) Ayrshire Notes No. 2018/1 Spring 2018 ISSN 1474-3, Ayrshire Archaeological & Natural History Society (pub.) in association with Ayrshire Federation of Historical Societies

On 27 March 1908 Miss Sophia MacLehose wrote a letter to the Provost of Glasgow Corporation asking him to accept on behalf of the Corporation a present of a picture, which was entitled Ben Ledi painted by Charles N. Woolnoth (1820-1904), she and her sisters Sophie Harriet, Louisa Sing and Annie Russell were making. [1]

At the time of the presentation that was made to the Kelvingrove Gallery, the sisters were living together at their late brother’s house named Westdel, in Dowanhill, Partick. The red sandstone villa was designed by Edinburgh architect George Washington Browne and was built for Robert MacLehose, their brother who lived there with his wife, Seymour Martha Porter. Furthermore, during 1898-1901, the Glasgow architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh was responsible for designing the second-floor bedroom of their house. It included a dormer window and adjoining bathroom. This was one of Rennie Mackintosh’s first recorded ‘white room’. The house still exists, but the room was dismantled. Furniture and fittings from the room as well as the original plans are held in the Hunterian Museum. [2]

THE FAMILY MACLEHOSE

As our donors’ name is very much entangled with their family, it is found that here a short introduction to their family may be suitable here.

The ‘MacLehose’ name had a special meaning in the publishing world, it is appropriate to start with the father of the donors, James MacLehose. According to the 30 March 1851 Scotland Census [3], the father, James MacLehose, was the son of Thomas MacLehose, a weaver. James was born on 16 March 1811 in the District of Govan of the Burgh of Lanarkshire, Glasgow, Scotland. In 1823, he was apprenticed for seven years to George Gallie, the Glasgow bookseller. In 1833, he made his way to London to Seeley’s, a well-known publishing house. Then, in 1838, he returned to Glasgow, where he began his business at 83 Buchanan Street with his business partner, Robert Nelson as ‘J. MacLehose & R. Nelson’. In 1841, he took over the business and continued in his own name. In 1850, he married Louisa Sing, the eldest daughter of Mr John S. Jackson, a Manchester banker. The census records show that they lived at 1 Kelvingrove Place, Glasgow and Mr James MacLehose’s occupation was recorded as Bookseller and Stationery. It is interesting to note that David Livingstone, a missionary and explorer, and a friend of our donors’ father had visited his friend on the morning of his first visit to Africa as a missionary. The two breakfasted together. [4]

The 1861 Scotland Census [5] shows that their first daughter Sophia Harriet was born in 1852 and then, their second daughter Louisa Sing in 1853. This was followed by Robert in 1854, Jeanie Maclean in 1855, James Jackson in 1858, Norman Macmillan in 1859 and finally Annie Russell, in 1862. [6,7] James MacLehose was appointed as the Glasgow University’s bookseller in 1864, and then as publisher to the University in 1871. [8] Having assumed his sons Robert and James into the business which had become known as ‘James MacLehose and Sons’ in 1881, James MacLehose senior died on 20 December 1885. [9]

His sons Robert and James both graduated from Glasgow University with MA degrees and continued the publishing business. [10] The other son Norman MacMillan MacLehose also graduated from Glasgow University with an MA in 1882 and became a surgeon. [11] On 6 March 1886, Norman Macmillan MacLehose married Olive Macmillan, daughter of the late Alexander Macmillan, publisher in London, and they lived in London. Robert MacLehose married Seymour Martha Porter and in 1896, James married Mary Macmillan another daughter of Alexander Macmillan, hence, cementing a long great friendship between the two great publishing houses of Great Britain. Norman MacMillan MacLehose died on 30 August 1931. [12]

Our donors, the Misses Maclehose

Our donors studied at the ‘Glasgow Association of Higher Education for Women’ from 1879 to 1883. They studied Logic, Moral Philosophy and Physiology in the class lists from 1877 onwards.

A name which is mostly associated with the ‘Glasgow Association of Higher Education for Women’ at the end of nineteenth century was one Janet Campbell (always known as Jessie Campbell) who promoted the need for higher education for women in Glasgow. She proposed that lectures be given by professors from Glasgow University and these lectures were very successful and continued until 1877 when the ‘Glasgow Association for the Higher Education’ for Women was formed. [13]

In spite of being deprived of a University education, it is clear that the MacLehose women received a very good education as we see from their contributions. The eldest daughter Sophia Harriet and her sister Louisa Sing were both authors in their own rights. Sophia was the author of two books:

(1) Tales from Spencer.

(2) From the Monarchy to the Republic in France 1788-1792.

Both of these books were published by their family firm:

Glasgow, James MacLehose and Sons, Publishers to the University, I90I

These books are still available and can be bought from bookshops.

Sophia Harriet MacLehose died on 22 June 1912. [14]

In 1907 a book entitled Vasari on Technique written by Giorgio Vasari, an artist, architect and a biographer of the artists of the Renaissance, was published in London by J M Dent & Co. The book was printed at the University Press by Robert MacLehose & Co. Ltd. and for the first time translated from Italian into English by Louisa Sing MacLehose, the translation being done during her stay near Florence.

Due to the fact that her brother Robert MacLehose passed away just before the book was published, there is a note from the author, his sister, on the first pages of the book.

The original book written by Giorgio Vasari was first published in Italian in the 1550s. Louisa Sing MacLehose’s translation into English was reprinted in 1960. Furthermore, Louisa S MacLehose was thanked by the editor of the Scottish Historical Review (issue October 1913) for her translation of some letters, written in 1543, from Italian into English. [15]

Louisa Sing MacLehose died on 7 April, 1917. [16] Her home address at the time of her death was recorded as Westdel, Dowanhill, Partick, and Glasgow.

The third eldest daughter of the MacLehose Family was Jeanie MacLean. She was born on 6 Sep 1855 and she last appears in the 1881 Scotland’s Census when she was 25. There is no record of her been married. But there is a record of her death in Ancestry.com pages of as ‘Death 30 October 1888 • Antwerp, Belgium’ [17] and no other references were given.

Annie Russell was the youngest of the MacLehose Family. She was born in 1862. She appears on the English census during a visit to London. She she also travelled to New York in 1924. She travelled back via Montreal, Quebec. On her return she stayed at Westdel.

Annie R MacLehose died on 1 December 1950 in Edinburgh in the Church Hill Hotel Edinburgh. [18]

References

[1] 1908 minutes of the Glasgow Corporation, Mitchell Library.

[ 2] Design for a fireplace, for the upper bedroom, Westdel, Glasgow c.1898,

http://www.culturegrid.org.uk/static/showResource/2929199

Also see additional Notes below at the end of the References.

[3] 1851 Scotland Census.

[4] Memoirs and Portraits of 100 Glasgow men,

http://gdl.cdlr.strath.ac.uk/mlemen/mlemen101.htm

[5] 1861 Scotland Census.

[6] 1881 Scotland Census.

[7] 1891 England Census Record.