#gilfillan

A Story of an Old Time Sheepherder

It was a lonely life on the range.  “Even if a herder does not particularly care for reading, he will be driven to it in self-defense.”  I wanted to re-share a good story about sheepherding life.  Gilfillan was a shepherd for 20 years and went on to become a well-known humorist, author, and speaker.

“Archie Gilfillan was South Dakota’s sagebrush philosopher. His prairie wit en­tertained people…

A Sheepherder in South Dakota Magazine…

(from the Paleotool vault) A lonely life on the range.  “Even if a herder does not particularly care for reading, he will be driven to it in self-defense”.  This is a good story about sheepherding life.  Gilfillan was a shepherd for 20 years and went on to become a humorist, author, and speaker. “Archie Gilfillan was South Dakota’s sagebrush philosopher. His prairie wit en­tertained people in the…

Week 9 – Interior of the Andersonian Museum, c.1831

[Archives reference: OP 2/1/14]

This watercolour by John Alexander Gilfillan, Professor of Drawing and Painting (1830–1841) at Anderson’s University, depicts the interior of the Andersonian Museum, once the public face of Anderson’s University.

A museum, displaying John Anderson’s ‘curiosities’, which included a large collection of coins, medals, Tassie gems and a valuable collection of fossils, had been in existence right from the foundation of the institution in 1796. The museum shown in the image, however, was only opened in 1831, following the relocation of the institution to its new building in George Street. The museum was designed by James Smith of Jordanhill and was situated on the first floor above a lecture theatre. It was topped by a dome. Smith also donated a large collection of coins and medals. Other exhibits were also acquired; Thomas Edington II presented mineral specimens, animals and birds from the Cape, Australasia and the South Seas and South America and, in 1830, 2000 stuffed birds were purchased from Mr Joseph Sabrine of London.

The museum was not only used by the students of Anderson’s University; on Wednesdays, Sundays and certain holidays, admission was extended to the public. The normal cost of entry in the 1840s was 2 ½ d. and 1 d. on public holidays. The admission fees meant that it was mainly the middle classes who frequented the museum at this time. However, during 1852, a special Saturday evening charge of one old penny was introduced. This special price certainly increased numbers; between 5th November and 22nd December 1852, the museum attracted 5,391 visitors, an average of 770 a day.

The museum continued to attract a large amount of visitors.  During the New Year holiday, 1869/1870, over 2000 people visited it. However, the later decades of the 19th century witnessed its decline. A number of coins were stolen in 1870, indicating slackness in security. Numbers of visitors also declined; by 1880 the average attendance (excluding holidays) had fallen to three per week.