Tipperary Libraries' Local Studies department has released online a wonderful collection of photographs from a recently-acquired set of 399 glass plate negatives.
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| Click to find out more about this new collection at TipperaryStudies.ie |
The images have been dated to the 1930s by window advertising posters and newspaper headline boards that appear in many of the photos, which are mainly of shops, houses and workplaces. One or more people poses outside each location, presumably the residents, shopkeepers and staff, but no index or guide to the images or details of where they were taken is available.
Staff knowledge and research into contemporary trade directories and other guides have enabled the Library team to identify 83 of the shops and businesses, and help is now sought from family and local historians to pin down the remaining 316!
Among the towns and villages recognised so far are Cashel, Thurles and Tipperary in County Tipperary; Cork City and Charleville from County Cork, Listowel from County Kerry, and Limerick City and Killmallock in County Limerick, so if you have connections to these counties, why not set aside some time to go through the Munster Glass Plate Images collection and see if you can assist with the Library's project. Even if you can't, you'll enjoy the time; the images are large and you can zoom in to view details.
You can find out more by clicking the image above, and start browsing the images here (click on each photo for enlarged view.
There's also an interesting 'Then and Now' feature here, showing some of the 1930s images from Thurles next to a photograph of the building as it is in 2021.