Mapping city, town and country since 1824: the Ordnance Survey in Ireland
An exhibition on ‘Mapping city, town and country since 1824: the Ordnance Survey in Ireland’ was on view in the Royal Irish Academy Library (1 July 2014– 30 January 2015). Organised by the Library and the Irish Historic Towns Atlas (IHTA), the exhibition focused on the Academy’s extensive collections relating to the ‘great national work,’ the mapping of Ireland at a scale of 6 inches to one mile. The 6-inch maps are an essential source for the investigation of nineteenth-century Ireland – city, town and country. Every headland, mountain, river, field, plot, bleaching green, public building, is recorded for posterity.
These maps form the basis of two IHTA publications:
Frank Cullen, Dublin 1847: city of the Ordnance Survey (Dublin: RIA, 2015)
Rob Goodbody, Irish Historic Towns Atlas No. 26, Dublin, part III, 1756 to 1847 (Dublin: RIA, 2015).
In the course of the OS mapping, directed by Col. Thomas Colby, assisted by Lieut. Thomas Aiskew Larcom (later under-secretary for Ireland, 1853-68), the project expanded to include a range of activities. For example, a significant feature of the project was the compilation of Memoirs – information on the landscape, topography, features of antiquarian interest, population, economy and society, gathered systematically. The purpose of this information was to supplement the maps and ‘to collect and diffuse information for the benefit of every class in society.’ The Memoirs contain a fund of information and include 1,640 sketches of archaeological, antiquarian and architectural features. Funding for the Memoir compilation was cut in 1839-40, thus only the Ulster counties are fully documented. Intended for publication from the outset, the OS Memoirs were finally published in 40 volumes in the 1990s. The Academy has published a selection of the Memoir drawings:
Angélique Day, Glimpses of Ireland’s past – the Ordnance Survey Memoir drawings: topography and technique (Dublin: RIA, 2014)
This publication seeks to illustrate the skill of the OS artists/engineers and the scope of the material selected for sketching and recording.
The importance of placenames was recognised at an early stage and John O’Donovan, the renowned Irish scholar, was engaged at the Placenames & Topograpical Department which generated the Name Books (originals held at the National Archives), ‘the alpha of the memoir.’ The objective was to adopt names closest to the original Irish form. George Petrie, artist, antiquarian, musician and collector, ran the department from his house in North Great Charles Street, Dublin. This was the base from which O’Donovan, Eugene O’Curry (lexicographer), James Clarence Mangan (poet and scribe), William Wakeman and George Victor du Noyer (artists) sallied forth on fieldwork of various kinds. O’Donovan, O’Curry and others, whilst dispersed around the country working on the placenames, reported back to Larcom, often on a daily basis. The resulting OS Letters, from 29 Irish counties (Antrim, Cork and Tyrone were not covered), concerned as they are with local families, antiquities and lore, form a major resource for antiquarian scholars, lexicographers and local historians.
Other material generated by the project, the OS Extracts, contain relevant material culled from primary sources, in Latin and Irish, some of which are not extant.
Our exhibition used all of these resources to illustrate the scope and depth of the OS engagement in nineteenth-century Ireland.
Mapping city, town and country lecture series
A series of lunchtime lectures was organised covering all aspects of the OS project. Lectures was held in the Meeting Room, Academy House and were recorded.