THE ROYAL IRISH ACADEMY IS IRELAND'S LEADING BODY OF EXPERTS IN THE SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES

The Royal Irish Academy/Acadamh Ríoga na hÉireann champions research. We identify and recognise Ireland’s world class researchers. We support scholarship and promote awareness of how science and the humanities enrich our lives and benefit society. We believe that good research needs to be promoted, sustained and communicated. The Academy is run by a Council of its members. Membership is by election and considered the highest academic honour in Ireland.

Read more about the RIA

Photographs Collections

The Royal Irish Academy Library’s collection of c.11,000 photographs and photographic reproductions covers the period between the late nineteenth century and the present. The photographs range from the depiction of Irish landscapes, places and objects of historical, archaeological and architectural interest to portraits of individuals, manuscripts and records of Academy events.

Unless otherwise indicated, catalogue records for most photographs are available from the online Photographs Catalogue

The collections include the following:

  • Academy related photographs, viz. images of portraits and events related to the Academy and its Members, photographs of the Academy house, sculptures and other artefacts, manuscripts, etc.
    c. 2,100 photos from the mid-19th century to the present

  • Praeger Collection, photographs from the private collection of Robert Lloyd Praeger, 1865-1953, with a main interest in natural history, showing images of the Irish landscape, flora and fauna, Irish places and their local people, field trips, etc. Most of these photographs are copies of originals taken by Robert John Welch, 1859-1936.
    c. 1,050 photos from c.1890s to 1940s + 1 photo album containing photographs taken during excursions of the Belfast Naturalists' Field Club (c. 1892-1893) which was presented to Robert Lloyd Praeger on 4 July 1893, on the occasion of his moving to Dublin.

  • Françoise Henry Collection, collection of photographs of Françoise Henry, 1902-1982 with a main interest in Irish, English, French, Swedish and Swiss antiquities, early manuscripts and architecture.
    c. 1,300 photos from the early 20th century.

  • Longfield Roberts Collection, photograph album from Cynthia Longfield, 1896-1991, an Anglo-Irish entomologist. Photos were taken and developed during the St. George Expedition to the South Sea Islands 1924-1925, mainly depicting the people and life on the ship and the flora and fauna of the Pacific Islands.
    c. 800 photos from the 1920s.

  • Thomas Johnson Westropp, 1860-1922, photo album of ruined buildings in Dublin after the Sinn Fein rebellion April-May 1916, photographed 17th & 18th May 1916 by Thomas Westropp.

  • Monica McWeeney (Whelan) Collection, c. 35 photographs depicting Dublin in the years from 1921-1922.

  • Irish Script on Screen (ISOS) is a project of the School of Celtic Studies, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. The object of ISOS is to create digital images of Irish manuscripts, and to make these images - together with relevant commentary - accessible online. Over 80 of the Academy library’s collection of medieval Irish language manuscripts have been digitised so far.

  • The library’s collection of nineteenth century Ordnance Survey drawings and sketches has been digitised and is also available on transparency along with antiquarian sketches and watercolours by Thomas Johnson Westropp, MRIA, 1860-1922, and George Victor Du Noyer, MRIA, 1817-1869.

  • c. 1,050 photos from the Ordnance Survey, c. 2,760 from Westropp’s Antiquarian Sketches and c. 1,030 of Du Noyer’s watercolours.

  • Collection of negatives, slides and transparencies mainly relating to the Academy and its collections.

Photographs may be ordered through the library. Information about orders and permission to reproduce images from our collections is available online on the services section of our website.

For queries please contact the librarian on duty: Royal Irish Academy Library, 19 Dawson, Street, Dublin 2, Ireland, Phone: ++353 1 609 0620, Email: library@ria.ie

Fan ar an eolas le nuachtlitir Acadamh Ríoga na hÉireann

Sign up now