The Library has recently acquired:
2011
New acquisitions (books, pamphlets and offprints), November-December 2011 Download here
New acquisitions (books, pamphlets and offprints), September-October 2011 Download here
New acquisitions (books, pamphlets and offprints), July -August 2011 Download here
New acquisitions (books, pamphlets and offprints), May-June 2011 Download here
New acquisitions (books, pamphlets and offprints), March-April 2011 Download here
New acquisitions (books, pamphlets and offprints), January -February 2011 Download here
2010
New acquisitions (books, pamphlets and offprints), November - December 2010 - Download list
New acquisitions (books, pamphlets and offprints), September - October 2010 - Download list
New acquisitions (books, pamphlets and offprints), July - August 2010 - Download list
New acquisitions (books, pamphlets and offprints), May - June 2010 - Download list
New acquisitions (books, pamphlets and offprints), Mar – Apr 2010 - Download list
New acquisitions (books, pamphlets and offprints), Jan – Feb 2010 - Download list
Significant Additions to the Collections – 2010
Over the past year the Library has acquired a number of important archival collections. The most significant of these is:
- Lady Barbara Beevor’s donation of the Caldwell Archive. Commencing with seventeenth-century documents relating to the Caldwell family in Fermanagh, the collection encompasses the lifetimes of several notable Caldwells, including Charles Caldwell, 1707–76, solicitor to the commissioners of revenue in Dublin, and more importantly, his son Andrew, 1733–1808, barrister, MP and an early Member of the Academy. Andrew Caldwell’s circle included James Caulfeild, 1st Earl of Charlemont, Joseph Cooper Walker and James Smith, president of the Linnean Society. Andrew Caldwell’s interests included the fine arts, architecture and botany. As a Presbyterian, he attended the Strand Street Meeting House in Dublin, the records of which form part of the Library’s Dublin Unitarian Church archive. Andrew’s brother, Admiral Sir Benjamin Caldwell, 1739–1820, served with the Royal Navy in North America and the West Indies.
The Caldwell archive comprises a diverse range of property-related documents and correspondence on social, political and family matters, as well as on topics such as travel, architecture and art. Containing nine bound volumes (1639–1872) incorporating estate account books, journals of tours (nineteenth century), miscellaneous correspondence and commonplace books, this collection is currently being catalogued and will be available for consultation later in 2011.
Other important archival collections accessioned are as follows:
- Dr Thomas D. Wilson donated a collection of Sir William Wilde’s correspondence with many of the great antiquarian scholars of 19th-century Ireland. Wilde, 1815–76, was a Vice-President of the Academy and was responsible for the organisation, promotion and cataloguing of the Academy’s museum collections which subsequently formed the core collection of the National Museum of Ireland. The collection (MS 12 N 23) will be catalogued and available for consultation by summer 2011.
- The Charlemont/Prentice Collection consists of a bound volume of 23 letters from James Caulfeild, 1st earl of Charlemont writing in his capacity of Commander-in-Chief of the Volunteer Army, to Thomas Prentice of Ennislare, county Armagh, Lieutenant of the First Armagh Company of Volunteers. The letters cover the period 1787–97. The volume also contains Charlemont’s Address to the Volunteers, 1 August 1788 and an Address to the Freeholders of county Armagh, 19 April 1791. This item is a significant addition to the Library’s substantial Charlemont Archive (MS 12 R 38). Collection acquired by purchase. Cataloguing in hand March 2011.
- Correspondence of Tomás Ó Máille relating to the administration of the Doegen recording project in Connacht. The Department of Education had contracted the Royal Irish Academy to administer this linguistic project which entailed recording Irish speakers in the provinces of Ulster, Munster and Connacht. The speakers were recorded by Professor Wilhelm Doegen of Berlin and his assistant, Herr Tempel. Ó Máille, Professor of Irish at NUI Galway (then UCG), was a major scholar with a strong publication record including editions of songs and stories. The Academy’s Doegen collection is the subject of a major PRTLI-funded project which should be completed later this year. A beta-site on which you can listen to the recordings is accessible at www.dho.ie/doegen. The Ó Máille collection (MS 4 B 56) was donated to the Library by Professor Ruairí Ó hUiginn, MRIA.
- The Library purchased an accounts book of the Bibliographical Society of Ireland (MS 12 X 28), compiled by Francis O’Kelly and covering the years 1944–48. This complements the O’Kelly Papers, a research collection containing Irish bibliographical matter.
- Ms Patricia Gallen Davies, Dublin, generously donated Thomas Moore materials for our growing collection of works by and on Moore (1779–1852):
Moore’s Irish melodies with new symphonies and accompaniments for the pianoforte by M.W. Balfe (London, s.a.);
A selection of popular national airs … words by Thomas Moore; the symphonies and accompaniments by Sir John Stevenson and Sir Henry Bishop (Dublin, 1892);
Irish melodies with symphonies and accompaniments by Sir John Stephenson and characteristic words by Thomas Moore esq. New Edition / edited by J.W. Clover (Dublin, 1859).
- Amy & Chris Ramsden, Cork, donated the transcript of a diary (1901–11) kept by Robert Day, MRIA, 1836–1914. Based in Munster, Day was an important collector of antiquities.
The Library is grateful to all donors and benefactors of the collections. If you would like to donate material to the Library, please contact us on 6380910 or 6090620 or email library
ria.ie. We would be delighted to speak with you.