Memorial Atlas of Ireland

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Memorial Atlas of Ireland (1901)

The Memorial Atlas was migrated to the NUI Galway digital repository.

The visualisation of the Memorial Atlas

For Memorial Atlas was digitised and it uses a set of tools provided by our digital repository. The compound object option implemented by our repository offers a complete view of the Atlas book presented in the same order as the original Atlas itself. Each page scan is accompanied by relevant information regarding each county like its Province and its GPS coordinates. In addition, the large image viewer offers to the researcher an easy-to-use interface to handle the high-resolution scans. 

For the researchers, the Atlas itself is held in the James Hardiman Library Special Collections Reading Room; as well, large-scale printouts of high-quality scans are available to view in the maps collection of the Library (https://jhldigitisation.wordpress.com/2014/07/).

About the Memorial Atlas

Published and printed by Lucius J. Richards & Company of Philadelphia, US, in 1901, the Memorial Atlas of Ireland is a rare resource for researchers of Ireland at the turn of the 20th century, in that it presents in clear detail the boundaries of each barony and civil parish in the country (something not usually of focus in maps from the era) 1 as well as a map of the country itself.

The Atlas consists of one general map of Ireland recorded separately and thirty-two county maps in double coloured pages with each county represented by an individual plate. 

This resource is extremely detailed : each county map is divided into baronies and subdivided into parishes and is accompanied by an inset map with a small key map of Ireland which highlights the provinces and shows the location of the county.  The inset maps are divided into the four provinces, and the particular county in question is highlighted with a different color to show its relative location in the province and on the island (https://www.loc.gov/rr/geogmap/pdf/irish/irish_I.pdf (p.428)).

The maps are also accompanied by a 24-page index entitled: "Combined Geographical Directory And Classified Index Of The Memorial Atlas Of Ireland.