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Category: Manuscripts & Archives

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Ghosties and Ghoulies

Stoker Festival image 2013

It is that time of year again – Hallowe’en – and once again the city of Dublin’s Bram Stoker Festival will celebrate all things macabre, strange and paranormal inspired by the legacy of Bram Stoker and his world-famous gothic novel.

As part of the festival a ‘vampire hunt’ has been organised and, in recognition of Trinity’s part in Stoker’s history, the Long Room of the Old Library is one of the destinations for the vampire fanciers.

A small exhibition has been installed in the Long Room for the occasion consisting of a photograph of a serious-looking Stoker along with fellow officers of the Hist; a copy of Charlotte Stoker’s recollections of a cholera epidemic in 1832 (which are thought to have fed her son’s imaginings of the ‘undead’); a first edition of Dracula and a copy of the work translated into Irish.

Thanks to the Early Printed Books and Special Collections department for allowing us to display these last two items. Stoker and his infamous creation were the subjects of one of EPB’s own blogs not too long ago.

Finally, please consult the descriptive list of the Stoker family papers which are held in Manuscripts & Archives.

Jane Maxwell

 

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Not Such A Wise Move

MS10248-87_1_WEB (2)

A portion of the Campbell family correspondence, TCD MS 10248, contains letters from William Blair and his wife Mary Ann who emigrated to America in 1836; it was not entirely a successful venture for the family. One of their daughters fell overboard on one part of their outward journey, though she survived; the ship carrying merchandise for William’s planned hardware business venture sank in 1838, and they subsequently discovered that they did not have full insurance cover; the children were often unwell, and their residence went on fire. In 1841, he writes:

‘…we got our dwelling House furniture & Beds amounting to about Twenty five hundred Dollars burnt to ashes in about half an hour. None of the family injured it occurred at dinnertime had it been in the night we must all have perished…’

One of their children also died. In the same letter he writes:

‘…we have lost a fine little Daughter…’

They eventually settled in Mississippi in the Spring of 1843, but tragedy struck the family again when William died of ‘congestive fever’, i.e. malaria, shortly afterwards, leaving Mary Ann practically destitute with six children. The remainder of the letters are from Mary Ann, mainly to her cousin William informing him of her misfortune, and looking for money.

‘…William I hope you will do all you possibly can with your Father in assisting me so that I may give the Children some schooling …’

A family member in trouble, however distant, was not ignored, and Mary was provided with some financial means to support her family. Clearly Mary Ann was overwhelmed by her difficulties, as there is evidence to suggest that she developed a dependency on alcohol.

Aisling Lockhart

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A thuilleadh ó ISOS / More from ISOS…

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Autumn 2013 marks and exciting time for Irish language scholars worldwide with the launch of the 2nd phase of the ISOS project at Trinity College Dublin. Irish Script on Screen (ISOS) is a co-operative project between the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS) and Trinity College Library to digitise, and make available online, important Irish language manuscripts from the collections in Trinity College Library.

The purpose of the ISOS project is to provide exposure on the internet for a vital part of Ireland’s cultural heritage; to place these primary materials at the disposal of scholars and students; and to contribute to the conservation of these valuable manuscripts, reducing the need to handle the artefacts themselves.

Trinity College Library has over 240 manuscripts in Irish. The first stage of the TCD/DIAS collaboration began in 1999, with the digitisation of the complete collection of medieval Irish medical manuscripts held in TCD (there are 28 in total), as well as the 12th century Book of Leinster (MS 1339), an anthology of Irish tradition – prose, verse, and genealogy. The second phase will involve six manuscripts in total, with the long-awaited digitisation of some significant Irish legal manuscripts, including a 16th century manuscript containing Brehon law tracts (MS 1336), as well as the Yellow Book of Lecan (MS 1318) a late-14th/early-15th century composite manuscript of medical tracts, grammar and prose, including almost the whole of the Ulster Cycle saga.

The newly digitised Trinity College Library manuscripts are expected to be available online in 2014. See www.isos.dias.ie for further information on the ISOS project and see the M&ARL webpage for further information on our Irish manuscript collection.

Caoimhe Ní Ghormáin

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Summertime and the Library was … busy!

At the beginning of the new term we reflect on a hectic summer which kicked off with the visit of Michelle, Malia and Sasha Obama on 17 June; a special exhibition on Obama family history was on display for the occasion. Also in June, Bernard Meehan, Keeper of Manuscripts spoke about the Book of Kells as part of the Derry/Londonderry City of Culture events and also delivered a lecture at the Hay Literary Festival held in Kells on 28 June.

M&ARL staff have worked on a number of temporary exhibitions timed to coincide with events within Trinity College Dublin over the summer. The Book of Kings: Middle Eastern Manuscripts in the Library exhibition accompanied the Middle East Library Committee (UK) meeting on 25 June. The Transmitting the Anglo-Saxon Past exhibition was displayed to coincide with The International Society of Anglo-Saxonists Conference from the 29 July to 2 August. The exhibition What Price the Children? The work of Dorothy Price among the Dublin Poor, staged to mark the centenary of the Dublin Lockout, is currently on view in the Long Room. These are also available as online exhibitions.

The Library has an on-going arrangement in relation to the annual Samuel Beckett Summer School run by the Department of Drama Film and Music. As well as curating an exhibition specifically to tie in with the School, M&ARL hosted one of the School’s teaching sessions to permit attendees to have access to original Beckett literary material.

Samuel Beckett Summer School 2013
Samuel Beckett Summer School 2013

Another regular event was the return of the annual Irish Harp Summer School. The Library is home to two early examples of the traditional Irish harp: the so-called ‘Brian Boru Harp’, which is on permanent display in the Long Room, and the less well-known Castle Otway Harp.

Irish Harp Summer School 2013
Irish Harp Summer School 2013 viewing the Castle Otway Harp

Further classes held during the summer included a talk for Trinity College Library colleagues on the surprising variety of objects within the M&ARL collection.

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Jane Maxwell (M&ARL) with Daniel O’Connell’s top hat
IMG_3947 cropped
A bullet which penetrated the roof of the Old Library during the 1916 Easter Rising

We are always delighted to hear about publications using M&ARL collections. One such author, historian Gill Morris from Tasmania, visited the Library on 6 August to present us with a copy of her book on the Revd Dr William Henry Browne, A Trinity College graduate, who left Cork for Van Diemen’s Land, Tasmania in 1828.

Gill Morris and Aisling Lockhart (M&ARL)
Gill Morris and Aisling Lockhart (M&ARL)

It is also not unusual to see M&ARL manuscripts featured on TV and earlier this summer the BBC filmed the 1641 depositions for inclusion in The Stuarts which should air at the end of this year.

All of this outreach activity continued smoothly despite the fact that the summertime tends to be the busiest time for M&ARL. Add to that a major refurbishment of the Reading Room during July and August and it all made for a hectic summer.

Estelle Gittins

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Words and Deeds

Deed MS1477-117_01

This deed dates from 1446 and relates to a house in Francis Street in the Liberties of Dublin: John Bossard and his wife Marion Chamberleyn granted the property to William Yong, citizen and butcher.

It belongs to a collection of over 200 vellum deeds (TCD MS1477) in the Manuscripts & Archives Research Library, and these documents provide a vital source of information for the social, commercial and topographical history of medieval Dublin. The geographical focus of the collection is the area around the parish of St John the Evangelist, which included the land surrounding the Church of SS Michael and John, as well as streets such as Fishamble Street and Winetavern Street. However, some of the deeds also cover other areas within and without the city walls, such as Oxmantown. Most of the deeds are in Latin and many still have seals attached.  They include leases, wills, grants, licences and appointments, dating from around 1230 right up to the early 18th century. As well as chronicling the transfer of land and property in this area, the documents also give evidence of the origin and occupations of the landowning classes, and of the varied spellings of placenames.  For example, among the characters who appear in these deeds are ‘Robert de Notyngham’, ‘Richard de Exeter’ and ‘Henry le Mareschal’; what is now known as Christchurch Place is referred to variously as ‘Bothestrete’, ‘Bowstret’ and ‘Bovestret’, while Fishamble Street appears as ‘Fishamelstrete’, and ‘Vico Pistarie’.

This collection, hitherto in a fragile state, has recently been conserved by the Preservation and Conservation Department, and a special folder has been constructed for each deed, which makes handling the individual items easier.

This blog entry is based on my ‘Manuscript sources for the history of medieval Dublin in Trinity College Library’ in Medieval Dublin XII: proceedings of the Friends of Medieval Dublin Symposium 2010, (ed. Seán Duffy, Dublin, 2012), which is available here and in most good bookshops.

Ellen O’Flaherty