The Watt Institution

02/09/2026

01/09/2026

🔎 A Sherlock Holmes connection in our collection! 🕵️‍♂️🐋

What does a whaling harpoon from our collection have to do with literature’s most famous detective?

In 1880, Arthur Conan Doyle served as ship’s surgeon aboard the Arctic whaling ship Hope — and we have a harpoon from the vessel in our collection.

Doyle’s experiences on his Arctic voyage later found their way into his writing, including “The Adventure of Black Peter,” one of Sherlock Holmes’ cases, in which a murder is committed using a whaling harpoon!

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20/08/2026

Today’s Art UK theme is holidays and travel. ☀️🎨

We’ve selected Cassis, painted in 1913 by Scottish Colourist John Duncan Fergusson.

Travel played a major role in shaping Fergusson’s work. After moving to Paris in 1907, he encountered the bold colours and expressive forms of Fauvism, which had a lasting influence on his distinctive style.

Fergusson regularly travelled to the South of France with fellow Scottish Colourist Samuel John Peploe, and lived for a time at Cap d’Antibes. He continued to return to the region throughout his life, inspired by its brilliant light, landscapes and vibrant colours.

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17/08/2026

🎒 Back to school!

Wishing everyone heading back to school this week a fantastic start to the new school year! 📚✏️

To mark the occasion, we’re looking back over 100 years ago to this wonderful photograph of a class from Hillend Primary School, Greenock, pictured with their teacher and janitor. C.1920.

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13/08/2026

Today's Art UK theme is Forms of portraiture: Who am I to you? Leeds University Library Galleries we’ve selected‘Holy Joe in the Mountains’ by Seán Keating (1889–1977).

Trained under William Orpen at Dublin's Metropolitan School of Art, Keating rejected the rise of abstract art in favour of a powerful social-realist style, portraying Ireland's everyday labourers, islanders, and local figures as true national heroes.

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12/08/2026

Will you be watching the solar eclipse this evening? 🌒

This 1968 screen print by Malcolm McCoig (b. 1941) captures a partial solar eclipse alongside a pair of striking blue binoculars.

But remember: never look directly at the Sun during an eclipse! ☀️👀

Instead, use proper solar eclipse glasses or try a simple indirect viewing method, such as a pinhole projector — or even a colander to project the eclipse safely. 🔭

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12/08/2026

🌟 We’re delighted that our project working with Inverkip Primary pupils and the incredible Katie D'Souza has been recommended by Museums Galleries Scotland as an example of how museums can promote and embed race equality and anti-racism in the curriculum.

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11/08/2026

Tomorrow evening, millions of people across Europe will look to the skies as the Moon passes in front of the Sun. Here in the UK, we’ll experience a spectacular partial solar eclipse, with more than 90% of the Sun obscured in some parts of the country. It’s a rare event, the last total solar eclipse visible from the UK was in 1999, and we won’t see another total eclipse from parts of the UK until 2081.

Our collections contain a fascinating connection to an eclipse from more than a century ago.

The Watt Institution holds a journal belonging to George Marshall Woodrow (1846–1911), a British botanist who began his career as a gardener at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, before spending much of his career working in India.

In 1898, Woodrow joined an expedition led by Indian astronomer Kavasji Naegamvala to Jeur, in western India, to observe the total solar eclipse of 22 January 1898.

The expedition was significant not only for its scientific observations of the Sun, but also for its place in the history of Indian astronomy, helping to challenge the barriers faced by Indian scientists seeking to participate in astronomical research.

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03/08/2026

Painted by Irish artist William Orpen (1878–1931), Afternoon Sleep captures a peaceful summer moment overlooking Dublin Bay. The figure resting in the painting is Orpen's wife, Grace, who appeared in many of his works during this period.

From 1909, the Orpen family spent each August at The Cliffs, a house at Howth Head where the artist found endless inspiration. Surrounded by breathtaking coastal views, Orpen painted a remarkable series of works featuring a bell tent erected on the hillside, where the family relaxed between days spent swimming and enjoying the Irish summer.

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