The publication of this blog coincides with the anniversary of the death of Sydney Owenson, Lady Morgan in April 1859. Born in Dublin, Owenson became a well-known novelist and literary celebrity in the early decades of the nineteenth century. Writing about Owenson in Some Fair Hibernians (London: Ward & Downey, 1897) Frances A. Gerard noted … Continue reading Sydney Owenson, Lady Morgan: Writer and ‘Fair Hibernian’
Interacting with special collections and archival materials can be an impactful experience for the user. Turning the pages of a sixteenth-century book, reading a propaganda pamphlet from the Irish revolutionary period, finding notes and inscriptions of a former owner on ephemera and photographs, deciphering the handwriting of famous writer, feeling the texture of the paper, … Continue reading Special Collections: Inspiring Creative Practice
The 2 February 2022 marks the 100th anniversary of the publication of the twentieth century's greatest modernist novel: James Joyce's Ulysses. It is a fitting occasion also for UCD library to celebrate our holdings of the Curran/Laird Collection which has many intimate and intricate connections with Joyce and his most famous novel. Constantine Curran (1883–1972) … Continue reading 100 Years of James Joyce’s Ulysses
In 1853, Matthew Digby Wyatt published The Industrial Arts of the Nineteenth Century: A Series of Illustrations of the Choicest Specimens Produced by Every Nation at the Great Exhibition of Works of Industry (London: Day and Son) in two volumes. Large in format, these handsome books are filled with intricate colour reproductions of a small selection of some … Continue reading The Art of the Book: Illustrating the Industrial Arts
As time passes and we move further away from specific moments and events, nuance is lost. An historical narrative is written and in it incidents may be omitted and periods of time compressed so that a story can be neatly told. This is the nature of history-telling for the most part - condensing the story … Continue reading Ephemeral Arteries: Connecting with our past through ‘disposable’ artefacts
UCD Digital Library has made available online a new collection entitled Irregular News: Civil War and Republican ephemera. This collection contains a rich store of primary source material relating to the revolutionary period. This material was collected by the Irish Franciscans and was originally held in their friary on Merchants Quay, which is located across … Continue reading Irregular News: Civil War and Republican ephemera
UCD Special Collections holds several manuscripts written by the 19th century antiquarian John O’Donovan. Of these manuscripts, perhaps the most intriguing is one entitled Description and historical illustrations of the round towers and other contemporaneous ecclesiastical remains in Ireland [UCD MS 49]. It also holds a collection of correspondence between O’Donovan and his friend and … Continue reading John O’Donovan Manuscripts in UCD Special Collections
Dublin-born poet and author Austin Clarke (1896 - 1974) amassed a large personal library during his lifetime. Encompassing prose, poetry, drama, literary criticism and biography, this collection of publications is now part of the Poetry Ireland Library, housed in UCD Special Collections. As well as revealing much about Clarke’s own reading interests and the type … Continue reading By the Cover: Dust Jackets and the Austin Clarke Collection
Librarians have a very mixed attitude to markings, underlining, or scribbling on books. In most cases it is frowned upon. In one infamous case from the 1960s, the British playwright Joe Orton served six months in gaol for defacing books from Islington Public Library. However, in other cases, far from being viewed as vandalism, ‘markings’ … Continue reading Providential Provenance
If you have spent time in our Special Collections reading room with some of our 17-20th century books, you may have marveled at some of the patterns that form the endpapers of your chosen material. While probably not the reason you have requested the book, those papers have a unique history all of their own, … Continue reading Marbled Papers: A Brief History of an Endangered Bookcraft