By the end of that decade, Smith's work was accepted by both the Salon des Beaux Arts in Paris and the Royal Academy in London.

He signed the trust into existence in November 1869 along with trustees James Barty, the Provost of Stirling, and A. W. Cox, a fellow artist.

The building was the second to be built on the north side of the Dumbarton Road, in the King's Park, which was under development as an up-market residential area.

It was an occasion for great celebration in Stirling: the shops in the town closed at noon to allow people to attend the opening.

In 1855, Sir William Hooker commissioned Croall to prepare a herbarium of the plants of Braemar for Queen Victoria.

Croall is remembered for his standard four volume work British Sea Weeds: Nature Printed published in 1860[2] and illustrated by W. G. Johnston.

Croall also established the Stirling Field Club whose members helped build up the collections of the Smith Institute.

In the early years, the Field Club met in the Smith and the successes of the museum are recorded in the printed transactions of the society 1878-1938.

When Croall died, the Trustees appointed his son-in-law James Sword, who had been working in the County Council Office, as curator.

During Sword's curatorship (1885–1921), the specialist history and antiquities collections were built up through small but significant purchases and donations.

Many of the best known names in the Scottish art world exhibited at the Smith, including Cadell, McTaggart, Bessie MacNicol, Robert Gemmell Hutchison and Anne Redpath.

Many of the concerts in the 1930s were organised by Adam R. Lennox, musical director of the Stirling Operatic Society and organist of Chalmers' Church.

When Gallery 3 was about to be reconditioned, the central heating duct in the middle of the room had to be carefully searched to remove any remaining ammunition.

In 1970, the Trustees, on the advice of the Keeper of the National Museum of Antiquities, signed over the original Stirling Heads to the Department of Ancient Monuments (now Historic Scotland).

It was feared that these important early portraits were in danger because of the condition of the Smith and that they should be returned to their original home, Stirling Castle.

In Stirling, the situation with the Smith was so serious, that the regional council was persuaded to enter into the partnership, providing half of the public funding package.

In 1984, during renovation of Gallery 2, it was discovered that the Victorian builders had built a wall only two bricks wide but forty feet high.

During this time, the Smith won one of the first Woodmansterne Awards for the conservation of the Hugh Howard portrait of composer Arcangelo Corelli (1653–1713).

Margaret Gray's time as Chairperson was distinguished with the production and delivery of Ailie's Garden, the biodiversity and play area at the rear of the Smith in 2002.

Many corners were cut in the construction, and it is evident from the idiosyncratic structure of the roof that the architect, John Lessels (1808–1883) of Edinburgh,[4] had little direct input.

Most of the building material came from the Raploch Quarry on the northern side of the Castle escarpment, now the site of the Fire Station.

In the centre is a coat of arms purporting to be that of Thomas Stuart Smith, but the heraldic arrangement is unknown and has never been entered at the Court of the Lord Lyon.

The frontage to Victoria Road and the Back Walk is 218 feet (66 m) in length and is broken by two gables having three-light Venetian windows which are surmounted by pediments.

Trustees George Christie, Provost of Stirling, J. W. Barty Dunblane, A. W. Cox Nottingham and John Lessels Edinburgh Architect."

The woodwork was stained to look like oak whilst the groundwork of each panel was in turquoise blue, the whole being enclosed in bands of soft red.

The plaster ceiling (by John Craigie of Stirling who had the contract for all the Smith plasterwork) was lost in the dry rot outbreak and removed in 1974.

On the east side of the building with its face to Stirling, it was lit by eight large windows and housed the museum collection.