‘Finding Dr Garvie’

‘Finding Dr Garvie’ is a new exhibition at the Pier Arts Centre in Stromness, that tells the story of Beatrice Garvie’s life as an early woman doctor, and of how she came to live and work on North Ronaldsay during the 1930s and ‘40s. 

D/156/430 Putting up the roof for the new bakery at Trebb

Beatrice Garvie spent 16 years on the island, and took hundreds of photographs of island life. She was systematic in recording as many aspects of life on the island as she could, and she made sure to give copies of the photographs to the people who were in them. Her own albums of photographs are now held at the Orkney Library and Archive.

D156/0336 John & Bertie Thomson of South Ness,
 with Dr Garvie's bicycle in the background.

Since 2020, Fiona Sanderson has worked to research the story of Beatrice Garvie’s life. Garvie was one of the earliest women doctors to train in Scotland, and she qualified even before she could be awarded a degree - before 1900, well before women won the vote, at a time when it was unusual for a woman to be seen riding a bicycle!

Fiona’s research became an island wide creative project, to re-gather memories of Dr Garvie and share them again. Over two summers, schoolchildren and other islanders worked with Fiona to rediscover Beatrice Garvie’s life on the island. New ideas to explore emerged as the project developed, including reconstructing some of her photographs in costume, recreating new pinnies from the fabric designs of the pinnies in the Garvie pictures, and an island bicycle ride.  Garvie’s bicycle was important for her to get around the island as needed, and often appears in the background of her pictures. When the blueprint for her bungalow emerged, the schoolchildren reconstructed the footprint of her home, in its original location. The children also made an animated film to illustrate her life on North Ronaldsay, which will be on show during the exhibition.

During the project, Fiona discovered some of Beatrice Garvie’s extended family, and it was through her contact with them, that details of one of Garvie’s cameras emerged; a Voigtlander ‘Brilliant’. Fiona found one in working order, and offered it to islanders as a way to record life on the island now. Prints from this camera project will also be on show.

‘I took Beatrice Garvie’s practice of returning photographs to the people who were in them, as a model for my own creative research’, commented Fiona, ‘It feels an ethical way to work that I imagine would have been unusual in those comparatively early days of photography.

‘Beatrice Garvie’s photographs are now gaining deserved recognition beyond Orkney, but it is just as important to me that her story remains well known in Orkney. Throughout her career, in India, and various parts of the UK, Dr Garvie met with considerable prejudice, and periods of ill health, during her work as Tuberculosis Officer, and in Fever Hospitals. In North Ronaldsay she clearly found a community that valued her.

D156/0205 The Thomsons at North Ness

And now, thanks to the work of the ‘Orkney Women Doctors Research Group’, we know a great deal more about the island connections of many other early women doctors who came to work in Orkney. This group has documented an astonishing number of early women doctors here in Orkney. The more than 50 doctors they have found to date, are illustrated on a new quilt which will travel to the isles later in the year, but which has its first unveiling at the Pier exhibition.

There will also be a chance to see Lesley Booth’s Fair Isle Garvie sweater and tammie, which she has reconstructed from the black and white photograph of Dr Garvie’s iconic knitwear.

Fiona and Lesley will each be giving a talk on their work, during the afternoon of Saturday 15th March at the Pier Arts Centre, Stromness, Orkney.

Contact the Pier for more details and to book a place: info@pierartscentre.com Telephone 01856 850209) More details about the talks are available here.

‘Finding Dr Garvie’ runs between March 15th and 26th April.

The photos used in this post are held in the Archive at the Orkney Library and Archive in Kirkwall and are used with their kind permission.