Thursday 7 April 2022

Digitial Repository of Ireland uploads HD maps of Waterford City

Seven historical maps of Waterford City have been published in a new collection on the Digital Repository of Ireland (DRI). They show the development of the city from a walled town to a bustling merchant city over a period of more than 300 years.

Image Credit: Nicholas Sinnott. (2022) Map of Waterford City 1830,
Courtesy Digital Repository of Ireland and Waterford City & County Council
Click image to explore the new collection on DRI.

They track not only the growth and development of this major Irish port city and its neighbourhoods, but the technical developments which were arriving in Ireland such as the railway, telegraph, and electricity.

The high-definition maps can be explored through the DRI's free IIIF viewer. "These maps contain marvellous detail about the City City," says Waterford City and County Archivist Joanne Rothwell. "As well as mapping City wards that were used for electoral and policing purposes, the location of graveyards, thatched cottages, forests and even boreens can be seen in these maps.

"Together they give us an impressive picture of how Waterford developed from the late-seventeenth to the early-twentieth century and what life was like for the inhabitants of the City."

These surveys and maps are part of the collection created by what was then Waterford Corporation. The Corporation commissioned surveyors, such as William Leahy, to map and survey the City and also the Corporation lands in the City and surrounding areas.