This year’s Roscommon Library History Seminar will focus on the life of one of the county’s female pioneers, photographer Augusta Crofton of Mote Park.
The seminar takes place on Saturday, May 17th in Roscommon Library beginning at 10.30am and concludes at 2pm. The event is free however places are limited so booking is essential. To book, visit https://roscommon.spydus.ie/cgi-bin/spydus.exe/ENQ/WPAC/EVSESENQ?SETLVL=&RNI=19245353
The event is organised by the county’s Library service in conjunction with Mote Park Conservation Group. The seminar will hear from leading authorities on the life of Augusta Crofton and her photographic work, much of which have never previously been seen.
Augusta Caroline Crofton was born at Mote Park, Roscommon on 16 October 1839 to Sir Edward Crofton 2nd Baron Crofton and Lady Georgina Paget daughter of the 1st Marquess of Anglesey. Augusta was a prolific Anglo-Irish photographer in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and in recent years her work has been receiving international acclaim.
A large proportion of her photographic collection, much of it of local subjects, is contained in the Clonbrock Collection at the National Library of Ireland. The Irish Architectural Archives also holds a collection of photographs relating to Mote Park taken by Augusta and other Crofton family members.
Sean Sexton an acclaimed Irish collector of historic photographs who resides in England holds much of her early work. In subsequent years, Augusta married Luke Gerald Dillon of Clonbrock, Ahascragh on 18 July 1866 and became Baroness Clonbrock. The couple had four children who were all actively interested in photography.
Among the speakers at this event are Dr. Orla Fitzpatrick, Dr. Úna Kavanagh and Eilish Feeley MA. The first of these lectures will focus on Augusta Caroline Crofton, her life and times in Mote Park. This talk will be delivered by Eilish Feeley, who will outline the Crofton family history and their connections and the early life of Augusta focusing on the family’s estate at Mote Park.
The lecture will also focus on the landscape which Augusta Caroline Crofton grew up in and which provided the inspiration for much of her early photography. The involvement of other Crofton family members in the art of photography will also be discussed along with how their photographic legacy has positively impacted on a wider understanding of the history of the area.
A resident of Mote Park, Eilish Feeley completed a Certificate in Genealogy in 2016 and a Master of Arts in History of Family in 2018, both through University of Limerick. She is a certified genealogist and an affiliate member of Accredited Genealogists Ireland.
Eilish is currently secretary of Mote Park Conservation Group who for the last thirty years have been researching the history and photographs of the Crofton family and their estate at Mote Park, Roscommon.
Dr. Orla Fitzpatrick will deliver the morning’s second lecture on the theme of Augusta Caroline Crofton: a photographic pioneer of the 1860s. She is a research fellow on Ireland’s Border Culture project at Trinity College Dublin.
Orla Fitzpatrick has a PhD in photographic history from Belfast School of Art, Ulster University. Her publications include the best-selling book Lost Ireland (Rizzoli 2021) and a chapter on the decline of two nineteenth-century Roscommon landed estates in publications Mote Park and Kilronan Castle (Roscommon History & Society, Dublin: Geography Publications, 2018).
Dr. Fitzpatrick also teaches history of photography and visual culture at National College of Art and Design in Dublin and was the librarian at the National Museum of Ireland from 2003 to 2023.
Her talk will examine Augusta Crofton’s early engagement with photography, referencing her diaries and the network of friends and photographers that she established whilst living at Mote Park. It will trace how she learnt about photography through informal networks in Ireland and abroad.
Following a short interval, the third and final lecture of this year’s event will commence from 12.45pm. The talk, Augusta Caroline and the NLI’s (National Libraries Ireland) Clonbrock Photographic Collection, Crofton and Clonbrock Estate Papers will be delivered by Dr. Una Kavanagh
Her paper will examine the NLI’s Clonbrock Photographic Collection and its important contribution to Ireland’s visual social history. It will also discuss details of Augusta’s early life through her mother’s diaries.
The central part of the presentation will concentrate on how Clonbrock Photographic Collection images provide evidence of the philanthropic responsibilities carried out by Augusta and her daughters.
The paper will also explore Augusta’s many civic duties and charitable activities in the late nineteenth century and the first two decades of the twentieth century. It will end by examining what has been showcased regarding Augusta in Irish historiography to date.
Originally from Kerry, Úna Kavanagh completed a BA Connect with Irish Studies in 2017 and in 2018 she undertook her MA in History, both at NUI Galway. She has just completed her PhD ‘Unravelling the Politics of Framing: The Clonbrock Photographic Collection’ at the Centre for Irish Studies, University of Galway.
The final 30 minutes of the seminar will allow those present to contribute and ask questions on aspects of the seminar, which should result in robust and positive debate. The event is expected to conclude at approximately 2pm.
Once again, bookings are now being taken but early booking is strongly advised. The seminar is an initiative of the Creative Communities Creative Ireland Programme, supported by Roscommon County Council’s Library service and the Mote Park Conservation Group.
