"The Photo Album of the Irish - U.S. Edition" is the first print publication from the Photo Album of the Irish digital archiving project
"The Photo Album of the Irish - U.S. Edition" is set to be officially launched in New York City this month.
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The Photo Album of the Irish is a digital archiving project that began in 2014 which celebrates the ordinary and extraordinary histories of people with Irish heritage reflected in their family photo albums.
Image: The Photo Album of the Irish
A team from Ireland's Gallery of Photography has been touring Ireland and the US collecting and scanning family photographs taken as early as the 1850s to the 1990s. These personal memories reveal the details of how people lived, worked, what they wore, how they celebrated special occasions and generally what everyday life was like for Irish people and Irish diaspora throughout history.
The project explores the ways in which photography takes note of larger changes in society, as private family histories are often ruptured by key events in history.
Wedding of Mildred and William McDermott, September 18th 1948, in their apartment in Dean Street, Brooklyn. (Photo Album of the Irish)
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Cormac K. H. O’Malley will launch the U.S. edition of the book on November 14 at Glucksman Ireland House, a part of New York University. The launch event is part of the 21st annual Ernie O’Malley Lecture 2019 and will feature an address from Daniel Mulhall, Ambassador of Ireland to the United States of America.
"The Photo Album of the Irish – U.S. Edition" is a 200-page full-color publication and includes a foreword by Ambassador Mulhall, and an essay by Seán O’Hagan, award-winning writer on photography for The Guardian and feature writer for The Observer.
Image: The Photo Album of the Irish
The U.S. Edition, which is available for purchase online, is the first publication from the wider Photo Album of the Irish digital archive project.
The book features photographs contributed by 24 families, which range from the 1860s up to the present. The family photo albums reflect the deep and ongoing connections between Ireland and America. Collectively, they give an authentic view of Irish American culture, drawn from people’s own representations of their lives, made as they were lived.
You can learn more about The Photo Album of the Irish on its website, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.
Mildred Lynch McDermott, born in New York in 1918, with her cousins (de facto sisters) Alice Timoney and Helen Timoney, Brooklyn, 1923. (Photo Album of the Irish)
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