New acquisition: An Post Collection
The RIA Library is pleased to announce the donation of an important collection of records, books and artefacts from the Museum & Archive of An Post.
We are delighted to announce the donation of an important collection of records, books and artefacts from the Museum & Archive of An Post to the Royal Irish Academy Library where it will be preserved and made accessible to scholars and the general public. We would like to thank Stephen Ferguson, Company Archivist and Museum Curator, who acted on behalf of An Post for this donation. Highlights from the collection include the following:
- Iris an Phoist (1922-2019), a weekly bulletin circulated to all post offices and containing operational instructions, tariff changes, and stamp releases; Reports of the Postmaster General (1854-1916), containing statistical details and information relevant to the Irish Post Office; and Eolaí an Phoist (1923-1982), which contains lists of all post offices in Ireland.
- Parliamentary reports on postal matters (1810-1898) including an 1842 paper on Post Office communication between Great Britain and Ireland.
- Published books of Irish postal interest dating from 1864-2018.
- An album of seventy-four photographic reproductions of designs submitted for the first series of Irish postage stamps in 1922, including one from R.A.S. Macalister, President of the Royal Irish Academy (1926-31); original printing plates for the first stamp series; and a presentation stamp album produced by the Director of Stamping and printed in 1946.
- A page of the 1922 overprinted stamps signed by Seán Sairseal Ó hÉigeartaigh, first Secretary of the Irish Department of Post and Telegraphs.
- The original artwork for one of the first four Irish stamps prepared in 1922, the work of a young artist named Milicent Girling.
