William 'Crimea' Simpson Collection
William Simpson (1823-1899) was born in the slums of Glasgow and had very little formal education. Despite these early disadvantages, he found recognition as a famous war correspondent and watercolourist.
His first job was with a Glasgow firm of lithographers. In 1851 he moved to London and found employment with the renowned firm of Day and Son, one of the largest and most prominent lithography firms of the nineteenth century.
Although he later worked for the Illustrated London News, he continued working with the firm until his death.
The turning point in his career came when he was asked to make campaign sketches of the Russo-Turkish war being fought around the Crimean peninsula on the Black Sea.
Before the era of photography, illustrated magazines and newspapers meant that war artists played an important role in documenting contemporary events.
The watercolours he subsequently produced, entitled The Seat of War in the East, were published in 2 volumes, between 1854 and 1856. This depiction of the Crimean War earned him the nickname by which he is known today.
Other notable events covered during his career include:
- the Magdala expedition of 1868
- the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869
- the marriage and coronation of Tsar Alexander III of Russia in 1866 and 1881 respectively
- the Franco-Prussian War 1870-71
- Schliemann's excavations at Troy, 1877
He also produced many watercolours of Glasgow and the surrounding area, including the one shown below, of the Gorbals Steeple. Some of these were digitised as part of a SCRAN project. If you are using a PC located within Glasgow Libraries, then use this link to their web site to view illustrations from the collection online by using 'crimea simpson' as your search term.