Nineteenth-Century Self-Help Role Models
Sir Ralph Abercromby - John Hoppner, c. 1787
Scottish National Portrait Gallery
This display is a collaboration with the National Library of Scotland. Central to the show is Samuel Smiles' 1859 work, Self-Help. The display presents the people who were promoted by Smiles as contemporary role models and critically re-examines what we mean by 'Victorian values'.
Featuring portraits from the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, the exhibition also contains a selection of some of the very best of the national art, library and archive collections, including material from the National Library of Scotland's recently acquired John Murray Archive. Much of the material will be on public display for the first time.
