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About William Lawrence
On the
20th March 1865 at the age of 24 William Mervin Lawrence opened a
Photographic Studio opposite the G. P .O. at Sackville street
Dublin. Over the years the studio successfully photographed the
length and breadth of Ireland from
Howth Head in the East to
Achill
Head in the West ,and from
Malin Head in the North to
Skibbereen the
South).
The collection consists of 40,000 glass plates mainly from the
period 1880-1914, but some plates go back to 1870.
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Lawrence was not himself a photographer, but an early
entrepreneur,
He opened his Studio in his mother's toy and fancy -goods
shop (see photograph right)
At that time there was great interest in Studio Portraits
and he employed a portrait photographer. At that time
his brother, John Fortune Lawrence, took stereo photographs
and William took a keen interest in them ,and took over the
sales.
He
employed a team of printers, artists (colourists and
retouches). In 1880 when the dry plate process came in
William Lawrence employed Robert French as his chief
Photographer French was born in Dublin and spent some time
working in the Royal Irish Constabulary, then joined
Lawrence Studio, and he worked his way up as printer, artist
and then assistant photographer. He took over 30,000
photographs of the "Lawrence Collection".
William Lawrence
Robert French |
VIEW OF WILLIAM LAWRENCE
SHOP FRONT
IN SACKVILLE STREET
Lawrence Family |
William
Lawrence produced at least 11 albums as follows:
-
Dublin City and County
-
Counties of Wicklow and
Wexford
-
The Lakes of Killarney &
Glengarriff
-
Cork, Blarney, &
Queenstown (Cobh)
-
Belfast & the County Down
-
Glens and the Coast of
Antrim
-
Giant's Causeway, Portrush,
and Antrim County
-
Lough Erne, Bundoran and
the Donegal Highlands
-
West of Ireland, Galway,
Connemara, and Achill Island
-
Armagh and its Environs,
-
Irish Life and Character
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William Lawrence produced a
SERIES OF TRAVEL ALBUMS CALLED THE
"EMERALD ISLE " ALBUMS |
Also
Produced in Chicago in 1897 in weekly parts "Ireland in Pictures".
A grand collection of over 500 magnificent photographs of the
beauties of the Green Isle. In the 1890's a new line of
business developed, when the post office allowed postcards to be
sent without envelopes, and after 1902 when one side could be
devoted to a picture, and you could send a message, his
postcard business took off.
Lawrence's
business prospered for nearly 50 years but in the latter years as
photographs became common and good reproductions appeared in
newspapers and magazines, and when the cinema, moving pictures came
in. and of course with the invention of the Box Brownie, the
business was falling off, by that time Lawrence and French were in
there early seventies and Robert French retired in 1914 and
William
Lawrence in 1916.
In 1916 the premises in Sackville Street was looted and burnt down
during the Easter Rising. Most of the portrait negatives were
destroyed. The negatives of scenes around Ireland were stored
in
Rathmines and survived. The firm closed down in 1942 and
the following year, the negatives (glass plates) were acquired
by the
National Library of Ireland
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