Scotiana

At the end of the nineteenth century, Art Nouveau transformed towns and countryside around the world.  Even though its style had gained popularity from just the last ten years or so, Art Nouveau permeated many arts & crafts: jewellery, book design, glasswork, textiles, wrought iron, and architecture, to name just a few, with its high [...]

If it is pouring with rain, as is often the case in Scotland, and if you are not lost in the midst of nowhere in a most desolate and remote place of the Scottish countryside with only a thermos of black coffee to cheer you up, it would be unthinkable not to be able to [...]

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Hey Mairiuna, before we hop unto Princes Square’s inviting blue escalator leading up to it’s animated galleries, let’s stroll a bit longer on Buchanan street, the most popular and well known shopping street of Glasgow.
I was so impressed by the urban design that I would happily spend more time in this premier pedestrian thoroughfare housing [...]

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Oh yes! Mairiuna, it was quite a fun ride we took aboard Glasgow’s Clockwork Orange subway train. Remember this photograph I took of you both just before we escalated down to the ticket booth?
At the ticket booth, we had a good laugh when the ticket officer, after we told him that you and Jean-Claude came [...]

The answer is: Donald Alexander Smith!
Born in 1820, in the small town of Forres in Scotland, he emigrated to Canada at the age of 18 and is known to most Canadians as Lord Strathcona.
He made his fortune building railroads and consequently, played a leading role in railway development in Canada. In 1880 he was one [...]