The exhibition features photographs, artefacts and other items that offer a glimpse into life in Tiberias and the surrounding region during the period of the Torrances' involvement with the Scots Mission Hospital.

David Watt Torrance (1862-1923) travelled to Palestine in 1884 and assisted in the inauguration of the Sea of Galilee Medical Mission. Following further training in Egypt, Damascus and Nazareth he returned in 1885 to Tiberias and opened the first hospital for those of any race or religion in two rooms near the Franciscan monastery.

Herbert Watt Torrance (1892-1977), son of David Watt, was educated at Glasgow University, graduating MB in 1916. In 1921 he returned to Tiberias and in 1923 became superintendent of the hospital. For services rendered during the British Mandate in Palestine he was awarded the OBE.

Following the declaration of the State of Israel in 1948 the mission hospital in 1949 became a maternity hospital responsible for midwifery and gynaecology in Northern Galilee under the Israeli Department of Health. In 1959 the government intimated the end of this agreement and the hospital closed. After retiring Dr H.W. Torrance moved back to Scotland in 1961 to work as a GP in Dundee.

The collection provides a record of the main period of the British Mandate, the day to day life of the local Arab population, the increasing rate of Jewish immigration and the impact of the State of Israel on the landscape. It also contains many photographs of medical conditions that subsequently have been eradicated.

The collection was donated to the University of Dundee Archive Services and Museum Services
by the Torrance family.