These photographs are from one of my recent acquisitions: an album of photographs, mostly snapshots, taken by a County Cavan family between 1900 and 1920. William Coyne is wearing strangely formal at...
This post is about photography but it doesn’t include any photographs! The graphics used by Victorian photographers on the backs of their cartes-de-visite were often as interesting as their pho...
Dublin City Libraries have chosen James Joyce’s Dubliners to be the featured title in their initiative One City, One Book. I’ve mentioned the book before in earlier posts, however, the pr...
When I first saw these 1931 photographs, I was immediately reminded of Arthur Penn’s film Bonnie and Clyde which tells the story of the infamous armed robbers Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow. Snapshot...
This little girl was the height of fashion for the 1900s. All the mainstays from the decade are here: a sailor style tunic; soft leather ankle strap shoes; dark tights and a large floppy wide-brimmed...
On this beautiful sunny day, I thought that I would post two seaside related snapshots. This group of happy ladies were snapped in the early 1920s somewhere along the Eastern Irish coastline. I love ...
I was hoping to post this cabinet card for International Women’s Day but didn’t get the scan ready on time. This proud graduate marked her conferral by commissioning a portrait from Kilpatrick photog...
Harry Braine (1895-1949) was a talented amateur photographer who was active in the 1930s and 40s. Dublin-born Harry was a member of the Photographic Society of Ireland and a regular contributor to th...
The little girl on the pedestal was named Elizabeth Angelina Anna Stopford and she was born in Dublin in 1868. Her family subsequently moved to Cork where she was photographed with her crinoline-wear...
Another workplace photograph, this time showing the staff outside R.J. Bolger’s grocer, 18 Main Street, Bray, County Wicklow. This image is very like a previous post which showed the workers at Hodgi...
These early cricket-related photographs show two brothers, David and John Drummond, the sons of the wealthy businessman and philanthropist David Drummond. The portraits were taken in the mid-1860s wh...
The commission for the Irish Pavilion at the 1964/65 World’s Fair in Flushing Meadows, New York was awarded to the Irish architect, Andrew Devane. An article which appeared in The Irish Times on the ...
Stuffed dogs were often as used as studio props in the 19th century although I am pretty sure that the animals featured in this post were alive when photographed. There is something comical and sligh...
The chill in the air reminded me of this beautiful carte-de-visite showing a Dublin girl in her lavish winter outfit. The expression on her wise little face, peaking out from the large bonnet, makes ...
The monument, which is just visible in the background of this 1950s snapshot, allowed me to pinpoint the photograph’s exact location as being on Hawkins Street. The gothic revival and Celtic monument...
Henry Dunbar based his business in a premises on O’Connell Street which had a long association with the photographic trade. Between 1859 and 1890, number 39 was the building from which Thomas Millard...
This cabinet card shows a charming group photograph of the five Walshe children from Battlemount, Narragmore, Ballytore, County Kildare. The Lafayette studio’s rustic setting includes wooden steps an...
Sometimes mistakes make for the best photographs especially when the attempts to rectify them are as humorous as the one above. The tops of the heads of this seaside group were chopped off by the pho...
This postcard of St. Patrick’s Well, Clonmel, County Tipperary, was sent to an Irish emigrant in Philadelphia ca. 1905. It was printed in Saxony, Germany and published by the large firm of Woolstone ...
When I first started researching this oddly named studio, I thought that the American Ping Pong Studios were in some way related to the 1920s craze for table tennis! Upon further investigation, I dis...
When I bought this cabinet card a few weeks ago I was happy to believe the online seller’s description which stated that the image originated from Queenstown (now Cobh), County Cork. I imagined this ...
As it is nearing the end of the summer, I thought I’d post a couple of holiday related photographs from a stunning little album I bought last year. The album was created by a family who purchased a t...
Just a quick post to say that I’ll be giving a talk tomorrow, Friday 19th of August, at the National Museum of Ireland, Collins Barracks, on the subject of fashion and dress in Ireland during W...
This post features another workplace photograph showing staff standing in front of Hodgins Drapers, Nenagh, County Tipperary at ten to two on the afternoon of Wednesday 19th May 1937. Some of the sho...
Sometimes regional studios throw up very unusual images, as these photographs from Galway and Limerick demonstrate. Although they display the usual studio props and formats, the sitters’ attire and d...
This image comes from a small snapshot album covering the mid 1930s to the end of World War Two. It starts with carefree photos of young people at various seaside towns in England and moves on to war...
These two groups of sisters are beautifully presented with matching dresses and hairstyles. The girls above were photographed by Robert Lyttle of Belfast, and have fabulous banana curls tied with la...
I am going on my holidays tomorrow to County Sligo and hope to have as much fun as the group pictured on this page of a 1920s snapshot album. The family were from middle-class Clontarf and perfectly ...
The above photograph is a single page from a large album and the caption reads ‘Finaghy House, Belfast, Our home for 4 years. Geoffrey was born in the room with large window on the left’....
In my mind’s eye, I like to think that Leopold Bloom’s daughter, Milly, looked a little like this young girl who was photographed by Chancellor’s of Dublin. In Ulysses, fifteen year...
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