I will give a talk on this subject at the National Library of Ireland, Kildare Street, Dublin on Tuesday 9th September at 6pm. It will feature just over 50 photographs from the collections of the library which consist of over 5.5 million photographs.
There will be some items which are rarely seen such as the image (top) from an album of photos by John Shaw Smith from Egypt in the early 1850s.
There will be images which have not been seen before such as this one of a group of people in a Poorhouse in an unidentified location in Ireland in the late 19th Century
And there will also be better known images such as this one by Colman Doyle in Derry around 1969.
The photos are arranged in groups of 2, 3 or 4 images, telling stories of Ireland and Irish photography since the beginnings of photography over 180 years ago.
Seen and Unseen - The Photographic Collections of the National Library of Ireland
William Fagan
9 September 2025 from 1800-1900
National Library of Ireland
Free, booking required
https://www.nli.ie/exhibitions-events/seen-and-unseen-national-librarys-photographic-collection
Comments
Thankyou very much
, so interesting. I would be very keen to view this album. Unfortunately I am not based in Ireland. Would I be able to
view the album online perhaps?
Also would you know of any 'unknown' Irish/British photographers who travelled in the regions there between 1855 and 1870? Thankyou
I hope this link works https://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000536550 Shaw Smith is not unknown. His work in the Mediterranean and the Middle East is highly thought of and some examples are in the Getty Museum. Unfortunately he more or less gave up photography after returning to Ireland and sadly took his own life in 1873.
There is an online paper somewhere showing early photography in and around Cairo, including by Shaw Smith. I will see if I can dig it up for you.
William
Thankyou very much. I have send you a direct message as well.
Goodday, please could you share the photographers name/date of the First photo of the Nile Boat? Many thanks
It got moved by the editor, but you will see the reference to the 'top' photo above. It is a calotype by John Shaw Smith from c1851/2 and it sits in an album which contains a narrative on the journey and how to survive a trip on the Nile in the early 1850s by his wife Mary. In my talk I describe it as an early example of 'TripAdvisor'.
William