Special Collections' & Archives' Subject Support: Geography

Special Collections & Archives have a wide range of sources to assist Geographical research. Such sources may be original newspapers or newspapers on microform, 1st edition Ordnance Survey maps or maps on microform, maps and sketchbooks in landed estate collections, local history journals, historical pamphlets or an authorised copy of UCD's National and Schools' Folklore Collections.

In addition Special Collections holds almanacs, directories and guides to these sources to aid in the interpretation of them.

Within the landed estate archival collections 17th to 20th century maps, sketchbooks and photographs (19th to 20th century) can be a rich and often un-tapped source showing features or land-uses in the landscape captured at that time, that may no longer be the case at the present time. These archival collections include:
The Bantry Estate Collection (Co. Cork)
The Bantry Estate Collection: Ancillary (Co. Cork)
The Grehan Collection (Co. Cork)
The Ryan of Inch Collection (Co. Tipperary)
The Villers-Stuart Collection (Co. Waterford)

Letters, diaries and financial records held in these and in other types of archival collections may also be useful for those interested in migration, land use, socio-economics, and even reports of normal to unusual weather conditions for a place and time. Collections like this include;
Major R.H.W. Hingston Collection: postcards and photographs taken during Hingston's deployment on the Indian Sub-Continent
The John James Postcard Collection: 19th & 20th century postcards of Cork city and county
The Lamb Collection: 18th century map 
The Nancy McCarthy Collection: 20th century letters and photographs
Murphy's Brewery Collection: 19th & 20th century fermentation books, employee registers, and tied-houses registers/files
The Sullivan Barry Collection: 19th century letters from USA emigrants 

There are a number of local history-related archival collections of original manuscripts of published material including;
The Hurse Collection: draft typed copy with mss corrections of the publication Monkstown and Passage West, Co. Cork, Some Notes, Historical, Archaeological & Otherwise by A.E. Hurse (M.Inst.C.E.) (1923).
The E. & G. Moore Collection: hardback notebook of mss copy of “The Bells of Shandon with The Annals of the Church of St. Anne Shandon, Cork” by E. & G. Moore (M.R.S.A), Cork [1890]. 

All PDF documents are available as Word documents. Please contact e.harrington@ucc.ie should this be required.