office

12:55 - Mr Lyster will feel better after a spot of lunch.

1897 "Thomas W. Lyster, Librarian 1895-1920, pictured in his office in 1897. He appeared in the episode of James Joyce's Ulysses set in the National Library, "Scylla and Charybdis". From - blog.nli.ie/index.php/2011/07/08/welcome/ Thomas William Lyster (1855–1922) was director of the National Library of Ireland in Dublin between 1895 and his retirement in 1920.[1][2] Lyster joined the library in 1878 and was appointed as its director in 1895. He was also a scholar who translated Düntzer’s Life of Goethe in 1883 and edited a poetry schoolbook, the Intermediate School Anthology.[2] Although a member of the Church of Ireland, he was used by James Joyce as the model for the eponymous "quaker librarian" in his novel Ulysses. An whimsical account of him is given in Oliver St John Gogarty's As I was Going down Sackville Street when Gogarty visits the national library.[3] In this book Lyster is very solicitous of the various needs of the readers in the library. Lyster lived at 10 Harcourt Terrace.[4] From - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_William_Lyster

Can anyone interpret the titles underneath? Looks like "1897" at right ... Edit - Found the megazoom. It says "A Mc Googan" at left, and "Photo 1897" at right. See catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000298266/HoldingsILS#tabnav There is also a sketch by John Butler Yeats with Mr Lyster's signature - catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000151965

‘Urbane, to comfort them, the quaker librarian purred: —And we have, have we not, those priceless pages of Wilhelm Meister. A great poet on a great brother poet. A hesitating soul taking arms against a sea of troubles, torn by conflicting doubts, as one sees in real life. He came a step a sinkapace forward on neatsleather creaking and a step backward a sinkapace on the solemn floor. A noiseless attendant setting open the door but slightly made him a noiseless beck. —Directly, said he, creaking to go, albeit lingering. The beautiful ineffectual dreamer who comes to grief against hard facts. One always feels that Goethe's judgments are so true. True in the larger analysis. Twicreakingly analysis he corantoed off. Bald, most zealous by the door he gave his large ear all to the attendant's words: heard them: and was gone.’

Is that a framed picture of Shakespeare on the mantelpiece? Also that's the biggest waste paper basket I've ever seen. However, his boredom at having an office job is timeless.

NARA 111-SC-47667. Taken April 26, 1919. "Wounded soldiers at Debarkation Hospital #3, New York City, N.Y. Medical office on train" Source: (catalog.archives.gov/id/86701450)

The person's name tag is blocked by their collar.