Eyes From the Past: Unveiling Ireland’s Photographic Legacy

Preserved in the National Photographic Archive, these artefacts — from 19th-century cameras to pioneering optical innovations — offer a glimpse into Ireland’s rich photographic history and the visionaries who captured it.

If a camera or lens is an ‘eye’, what has it seen in its lifetime in a world that was different to the one in which we live today? In a way, old cameras and lenses are still-living observers of our past and should be treated as such.

In 1854, when photography was still young, a group of like-minded photography enthusiasts got together in Dublin to form the Dublin Photographic Society. Here are the Council members of the society, meeting in Leinster House in Kildare Street, Dublin, then the HQ of the Royal Dublin Society (RDS), in 1856.

In the centre of the photograph above is Sir John Jocelyn Coghill, and the bald man behind him is the previous President, Lord Otho Fitzgerald, and to their immediate right (left as viewed) are, respectively, Thomas Grubb and Samuel Bewley.

A few years later this body became the Photographic Society of Ireland (PSI) and my article here is about its collection of cameras and other photographic equipment which the now defunct society and its members had started in 1947. This collection now sits in the National Photographic Archive of the National Library of Ireland. About two years ago I was asked if I was interested in doing a catalogue, on a pro bono basis, of the items in the collection and I did not hesitate in agreeing.

I have, since then, been visiting the archive once or twice a month and working with Elizabeth Kirwan and her wonderful colleagues, Nora Thornton and Barbara Bonini, to produce a comprehensive catalogue with all relevant information about some 260 items. I can only show a small number of the items in the collection here.

Sliding Box Camera with Grubb Aplanatic Lens

I will start with one of the founders of PSI, Thomas Grubb. His day job was at the Bank of Ireland, but his main claim to fame was as a major optical instrument maker of everything from astronomical telescopes to camera lenses.

The item in this case is a sliding box camera by an unknown maker, from the 1850s/60s, with a Dublin made Grubb Patent Ax Aplanatic lens from the 1870s mounted on the lens board.

Rowland Ward Naturalist Camera

This is a Rowland Ward Naturalist camera from the 1880s which produced multiple 2x2 inch glass negatives.

This camera is a very rare version of the British Marion Academy camera. Rowland Ward, who attached his name to this, was a taxidermist by profession.

CP Stirns Vest Camera

This is an example of the circular CP Stirns Vest camera, the lens of which would poke out through the photographer’s buttonhole. This one was imported by James Robinson of 65 Grafton Street, Dublin, who was a founder member of PSI, seen second from the right in the back row in the first photo above.

One of the four examples of this camera in the collection contained this developed negative plate, which is here converted to a positive, with six circular images of a horse-racing meeting (in an unknown location) attributed to a Captain Scott in 1888. Below is a positive image of this negative plate.

Ives Kromskop with Plates

This is the rare Ives Kromskop from the 1890s which was used to show stereo colour Ives Kromograms, using a complex system designed by the American optical genius, Frederic Ives. This involved using three pairs of identical plates which were taken and viewed using red, green and blue filters to give both colour and stereo effects.

Self-made camera by Henry Goodwillie

The next up is an absolute gem of a camera from 1893 which was self-made by Henry Goodwillie, a PSI member. This was, for 1893, a state-of-the-art camera for glass dry plates with a miniature Thornton Pickard type shutter, reflex viewer and a system at the back for what could be called multiple rising plates and, using a felt cover to shut out light, the photographer could write down the subjects he had photographed on a reusable notepad.

Henry Goodwillie was a bank official and a friend of the Irish poet and writer George Russell (AE) with whom he would go on walks along the Dodder River in Dublin. He was 27 when he made this camera, a wonderful achievement in 1893.

Houghton Klito ‘falling plate’ detective model

This camera is a Houghton Klito ‘falling plate’ detective model made between 1900 and 1920. This is very similar to the item of the same make and type, used by Irish playwright J. M. Synge, which is kept at Trinity College Dublin (TCD). The ‘falling plate’ refers to the system at the rear whereby a spring and lever arrangement pushed plates that had been exposed to the bottom of the camera and pushed up the next plate for exposure.

Scott/Ilford Portable Light Meter

In the 1880s, Professor J Alfred Scott of Trinity College Dublin, who was President of PSI in the 1890s and in the 1920s, created one of the first series of tables for measuring and using light for photographic exposure. These were then used by the Ilford company in Britain to create one of the earliest compact, practical and portable light meters for photography, which was launched in 1893.

Grubb Aplanatic Lens

The final item brings us full circle. This is an Aplanatic lens made in the 1880s by Sir Howard Grubb, son of PSI founder Thomas Grubb, in the 1880s and probably modified in the 1890s to include a diaphragm aperture. The lens is in ‘showroom’ condition, which may mean that Sir Howard presented it to the society, of which he was President in 1888-89. As the writing on the lens is upside down, I am showing it that way to allow the text to be read.

It has been a pleasure to work on this collection and to bring to the fore some of the great people who had been involved with the PSI over the many years of its existence.

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The National Library of Ireland houses over five million photographs, which are an invaluable visual record of the history and culture of Ireland from the 1840s to the present day.

Learn more about our photographic collection.