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Photography in Ireland, a (very) brief history.
It is generally accepted that photography began in 1839, but in the early stages photography was difficult and confined mainly to the elite in society. The first commercial studio in Ireland, in Dublin, was set up in 1841 and many more followed, mostly in the bigger towns. These Daguerreotype photographs, mostly studio shots, are rare and very few survive. The first "boom" in photography began in the 1860's after the "carte-de-visite" had been invented by Disdéri in 1854. The small size of these photographs (2.5 x 4 inches) meant that photographic albums began to be kept, rather that the earlier wall-mounted images. By 1878 Charles Bennet had improved the dry-plate process and thus revolutionized photography. The exposure time was shortened and the two processes previously used were reduced to one. In 1881 the Eastman Dry Plate Company had been set up in Rochester, New York and by 1888 it was selling it's revolutionary "Kodak" camera. By the end of the nineteenth century photographs were being incorporated into newspapers, though they were sparingly used until after the First World War. Thereafter their use became commonplace. In the 1930's the flash-bulb was invented by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1947 the Polaroid camera was invented and in 1963 the first colour Polaroid was produced. In 1969 George Smith & William Boyle invented the "charge-coupled device", the basis of today's digital camera. The first digital camera, the Mavica" was developed by Sony in 1981. Apple had the first general use digital camera, the "Apple Quick 100" in 1994 and in 1995 Kodak launched the "Kodak DC40" the forerunner of the hand-held devices we all use today. Pioneer Roscommon Photographers. Edward King Tenison and his wife Louisa, who lived at Kilronan Castle, acquired a licence in the early 1850's from one of the inventors of photography, W.H.F. Talbot and took photographs of the big houses and churches of Roscommon, Mayo and Longford. The positive images were kept in an album, now known as the "Kilronan Album" and 106 images from this album are now in the National Photographic Archive in Temple Bar, Dublin. Some more of their photographs are in the Irish Picture Library, also in Dublin. Lady Augusta Crofton Dillon lived just across the county boundary in Clonbrock, Co. Galway. She was a skilled photographer and the Clonbrock Photographic Collection, consisting of 3,500 images taken between 1860 and 1930, is in the National Photographic Archive. In 1869 it became law that all prisoners throughout the country were to be photographed when they entered the prison. For the period from 1881 to 1927 the "mug-shots" and descriptions are kept in the National Archives, Bishop's Street, Dublin. Perhaps the biggest photographic collections that remain in Roscommon today are with the local newspapers, The Roscommon Herald, The Roscommon Champion and The Roscommon People, though these newspapers often use free-lance photographers. A number of individual freelance collections have been dumped over the years. (If you are a freelance photographer and have no room for your collection, please contact us!). Postcard Photographs. William Mervyn Lawrence opened a photographic studio in Dublin in 1865. From the 1890's he produced vast numbers of picture postcards depicting various scenes from around the country, including some from Roscommon. (Postcards sold best in tourist areas and Roscommon was not a big tourist destination at the time, therefore the overall number of cards for the County is quite small). Postcards were also produced by Eason & Son Ltd., Valentine & Son and Hely's Ltd. Most of what remains of these collections is kept in the National Photographic Archive and the National Archives. The Cardall collection of ca.5000 postcards is housed in the National Photographic Archive. Our Postcard Collection (follow this link to view our current Roscommon Postcard collection). If you have any Roscommon photographs that you do not want, please consider donating them to our archive. Please contact us. WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO DO NOW? GO TO TOP? Go to Photo Archive? Go to Website Homepage? CONTACT US? Visit Roscommon? |
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The following brief
history of photography in Ireland is derived from "Photographs
& Photography in Irish Local History" by Liam Kelly. (