Mapping city, town and country since 1824: the Ordnance Survey in Ireland

This lecture series complemented the exhibition ‘Mapping city, town and country since 1824: the Ordnance Survey in Ireland’ which focussed on the Ordnance Survey’s mapping of Ireland at a scale of 6-inches to the mile, a project which encompassed an enormous data gathering exercise, including Memoirs (statistical and descriptive data centred on parishes), Name Books (Placename data), topographical drawings and John O’Donovan’s OS Letters (antiquarian, linguistic and historical data). Most of these records reside in the Academy Library where they constitute an important research resource.

The impetus for the exhibition and lecture series was the Academy’s publication of three OS-related volumes:

Frank Cullen, Dublin in 1847: city of the Ordnance Survey (Dublin, 2015)

Angélique Day, Glimpses of Ireland’s past: the Ordnance Survey Memoir drawings: topography and technique (Dublin, 2014)

Rob Goodbody, Dublin part III: 1756-1847 (Irish Historic Towns Atlas, 26) (Dublin, 2014)

Location: Academy House
Date: August-November 2014