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New Online Exhibition: ‘The Ruins of 1916’

google exhibThe Library of Trinity College Dublin has launched a new online exhibition The Ruins of Dublin 1916 – A Photographic Record by Thomas Johnson Westropp on the Google Cultural Institute platform.

The exhibition showcases the photographs taken by the TCD graduate and archaeologist Thomas Johnson Westropp in the aftermath of the Easter Rising. The 44 images can be viewed larger than life-size and details can be picked out that are otherwise invisible to the naked eye, such as the First World War posters affixed to the wall of the Four Courts.

TCD MS 5870 f. 11r
TCD MS 5870 f. 11r

The Library has also contributed a number of these images to Google’s Dublin Rising 1916-2016, an interactive Google Street View tour narrated by actor Colin Farrell, which lets visitors virtually explore the city streets, discovering the events and people who shaped history 100 years ago. Dublin Rising 1916-2016 was developed by Google in collaboration with the Library of Trinity College, as well as the National Library of Ireland, Royal Irish Academy, the Abbey Theatre and Glasnevin Cemetery.

Enda 3Both presentations were launched by the Taoiseach Enda Kenny and the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Heather Humphreys at Google headquarters in Dublin on Tuesday 12 January.

The Westropp album is part of an important and diverse collection of 1916-related manuscripts and printed items held in Trinity’s Library which is exposing these materials through a year-long blog Changed Utterly – Ireland and the Easter Rising.

A Series of Views of the Ruins of Dublin May 1916
A Series of Views of the Ruins of Dublin May 1916

Commenting on the collaboration,  Trinity Librarian and College Archivist Helen Shenton said: “The Library of Trinity College Dublin is for the second time partnering with Google Cultural Institute to create a free, easy-to-use online resource for anybody with an interest in Irish history. The last successful collaboration related to the First World War; it was so popular that Trinity is delighted to work with Google again and this time we have focused on the 1916 Easter Rising. It might come as a surprise just how large and how rich Trinity’s 1916 research collection is. Very early on, the Library decided that one of the best ways to commemorate the Rising was to find ways to share these heritage materials with anyone who wanted to see them. That’s what great Libraries do − mind and share national memory and that’s what we are doing now. Out of a wide range of unique, never-before-seen artefacts we are offering, through Google, access to the amazing Westropp photographs of the destruction of the physical centre of Dublin city a century ago. These images bring vividly to life the impact of the Rising on everyday life in Dublin. The significance of these contributions to the Google Cultural Institute once again demonstrates the Library’s ongoing commitment to increasing open access to national heritage materials.”

We would like to thank Library colleagues who worked on the exhibit especially Gillian Whelan, Digital Collections and Greg Sheaf, Web Librarian.