Stirling Smith Art Gallery and Museum
The Smith Institute first opened to the public on 11 August 1874. It was an occasion for great celebration in Stirling, and the shops in the town closed at 12 noon to allow people to attend the opening. Nevertheless, there were some mixed feelings, for Thomas Stuart Smith, had died in 1869 and the location of the building was felt by many people to be too far away from the old town.
William Arthur Smith
Smith's work is represented in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C., the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., and the James A. Michener Art Museum in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, and was the subject of solo exhibitions at the Toledo Museum of Art (1942 and 1952), at Bucknell University (1952) and in foreign cities in the 1960s and 1970s. He executed an historical mural for the State of Maryland in 1968; illustrated United States postage stamps on historical subjects; authored a book about the sculptor Gerd Utescher; and produced illustrations for American magazines. From 1968 to 1973, he served a vice president on the board of directors of Pearl Buck's Welcome House.