crofton

25" OSI The formal garden was to the right of the main house but there were shubberies and rockeries all over the estate. so she could be sitting anywhere. Born Augusta Caroline Crofton 16th October 1839, she died 5th September 1928 She would have been 75/76 in 1915.

From her date of birth (16.10.1839) she would have been 75 in 1915.

TCD is working on a Letters of 1916 project, which includes a bunch to/from the Clonbrocks from about this time. For example R.E. Dillon congratulating his mother on her golden wedding anniversary.

I’d kill to see this television series! Do any of you remember it? The ladies of the lens At the Great Exhibition in London of 1851, Lady Augusta Crofton’s father bought her a camera and she never looked back. With Rose Shaw she became one of the earliest photographers in Ireland and starting tonight their work, along with thousands of pictures by their male colleagues, will be featured by RTÉ in a six-part television documentary series on old photographs called “Shadows”. “Lady Augusta Crofton was the first great Irish woman photographer” says Michael O’Connell, producer of the series. “If you think that photography was only invented in 1837 and that she was in action by the very early 1850s that makes her very much part of the pioneers. She was operating a camera less than ten years after what would be reputed to be the first photographs taken in Ireland.” With her wet plate process camera, Augusta, who married into the Dillon family of Clonbrock in East Galway, took over 1,000 photographs which are today in the basement of the National Library [not any more, they’re not!] and God knows how many others as well which are now lost to posterity… (Irish Times, 15 February 1985)

Where are the photographs now Carol? Sounds a terrific TV series!

This is Richard Somerset Le Poer Trench later 4th Earl of Clancarty. (As the eldest son, he was given the courtesy title of Viscount Dunlo when his father became earl.)

Here he is at the peerage.

This camera history page has an image of a very similar camera by Jules Dubosq, London

20 February 1864 was a Saturday. www.timeanddate.com/date/weekday.html

Later / earlier that same Saturday - catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000183122

I wonder if any of the younger ones are those children from the previous shots?

www.flickr.com/photos/91549360@N03/25191834845/in/datepos...

O Mac That's so spooky - I can imagine the same figures still there.

Wikipedia has a photo of Lord Clonbrock in what looks like the same outfit down at the castle (maybe 500m from the house). It is labelled R. Welch 2 VI 00. Perhaps Lord Clonbrock often dressed exactly like this, though. That image is apparently part of the Welch collection at Galway library.

Welch is credited as a contibutor to the Clonbrock Collection, (possibly by accident?), so maybe it was the same day...