A 'Scheme of My Protection': Rosalind Birnie Philip and the history of the James McNeill and Beatrix Whistler Collection at the University of Glasgow

Abstract

• The Whistler Collection, held at the University of Glasgow, is one of the most important collections related to the nineteenth-century American artist James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) in the world. It was established in the mid-1930s by the artist's sister in-law Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958) who donated the Whistler Estate to the University through two gifts in 1935 and 1954, and one bequest - gift made after her death - in 1958. This article is the first study to focus on Birnie Philip and offers an in-depth examination and comparative analysis of all the conditions that she placed on all her gifts to the University of Glasgow and the historical context for those conditions.