‘It’s a Long Way to Tipperary’: using an estate collection to develop an online presence

ABSTRACT

The papers of the Armstrong family of Moyaliffe Castle, County Tipperary, held at the Glucksman Library, University of Limerick in Ireland, contain a unique set of diaries, photographs, correspondence, and ephemera relating to the First World War. The centenary commemorations of 2014–2018 inspired the Library to embark on an ambitious undertaking to showcase the broad range of this material to highlight how archival collections can be used to bring history to life. The project took the form of an online exhibition, which followed the daily lives of the Armstrong family through weekly blog posts published in ‘real time’ between June 2014 and December 2018. The project represented the first major attempt of the Library’s Special Collections and Archives Department at using its collections to develop an online presence. This paper explains how the project came about, and explores in some detail the work involved in its creation, the difficulties faced by the small project team which managed it, and lessons learnt along the way.

KEYWORDS:

• Estate collections
• online exhibitions
• public history
• First World War

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank my colleagues at the Glucksman Library's Special Collections and Archives Department and digital services librarian Sinéad Keogh for support throughout this project and for making helpful comments on this article.

Notes

1. http://oldsitehc.info/fileadmin/user_upload/Grants/Grants_Programme_2011/Grant_Awards_2011/HM_HC_Grant_Offers_2011.pdf.

2. The catalogues can be consulted online at https://www.ul.ie/library/explore-collections/archives/armstrong-papers.

3. Some of the early projects commemorating the First World War included Century Ireland (https://www.rte.ie/centuryireland/) in partnership with Boston College and RTÉ; Faces of the First World War (http://www.1914.org/faces/) by the Imperial War Museum; and the EU digital platform Europeana 1914–1918 (https://www.europeana.eu/portal/en/collections/world-war-I).

4. Team members included Special Collections librarian Ken Bergin as project manager, digital services librarian Sinéad Keogh who was responsible for the technical execution of the project, senior library assistant Jean Turner who proofread the blog posts, and consultant archivist Anna-Maria Hajba who transcribed the documents and created the content of static pages and blog posts. The team was later augmented by library assistants Gerardine Ahern and Ronnie O'Neill, who contributed to the technical execution of the project. In addition, Dr Patrick McMahon joined the team for a period in 2014–2015 to promote the project on social media.

5. Cronin, “Irish History Online,” 282.

6. Pennell, “Choreographed by the Angels?” 256.

7. Ibid., 258–60.

8. Ibid., 265.

9. See, for example, Decade of Centenaries by University College Dublin (centenaries.ucd.ie); Inspiring Ireland by the Royal Irish Academy’s Digital Repository of Ireland (inspiring-ireland.ie); and Letters of 1916 by Maynooth University (letters1916.maynoothuniversity.ie/learn/).

10. Lester, “Is the Virtual Exhibition?” 86.

11. Theimer, “What is the Meaning?” 66–67.

12. Ibid., 60, 62.

13. https://www.ul.ie/library/about/about-glucksman-library/mission-vision-values.

14. Pat Armstrong to Rosalie Armstrong, 13 December 1915. Armstrong Papers, P6/1210 (215).

15. Donovan, “The Best of Intentions,” 130.

16. Chief Postal Censor to Rosalie Armstrong, 13 December 1941. Armstrong Papers, P6/1182 (32).

17. See Weeks 77 (http://longwaytotipperary.ul.ie/week-77/), 29 (http://longwaytotipperary.ul.ie/week-29/), and 25 (http://longwaytotipperary.ul.ie/week-25/), respectively.

18. Sassoon, “Suicide in the Trenches,” 31.

19. Pat Armstrong to Rosalie Armstrong, 26 October 1916. Armstrong Papers, P6/1211 (115).

20. The same concept was central to the state-funded project Century Ireland – see Cronin, “Irish History Online,” 277.

21. Kalfatovic, “Online with the Show,” 35.

22. See http://longwaytotipperary.ul.ie/week-14/.

23. The websites FirstWorldWar.com (http://www.firstworldwar.com/index.htm), The Great War 1914–1918 (http://www.greatwar.co.uk/), Kent and Medway in the First World War (http://www.kent.gov.uk/about-the-council/campaigns-and-events/kent-and-medway-in-the-first-world-war), and The Long, Long Trail (http://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/) were particularly helpful in this regard.

24. The websites of the British Newspaper Archive (https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/) and The Illustrated First World War (https://www.illustratedfirstworldwar.com/) were the main resources used.

25. https://www.cwgc.org/.

26. Eveleigh, “Crowding out the Archivist?” 222.

27. By the end of the project, the page comprised the biographical details of almost 1000 individuals.

28. See, for example, The Irish Times https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/heritage/exhibition-tells-story-of-ww1-from-perspective-of-irish-family-1.1958198.

29. https://twitter.com/ww1UL, and https://www.facebook.com/ArmstrongFamilyMoyaliffe.

30. Cunliffe, Kritou and Tudhope, “Usability Evaluation,” 232.

31. Email received by the project team, 12 January 2015.

32. Emails received by the project team, 29 August and 28 July 2014, respectively.

33. Email received by the project team, 23 September 2014.

34. Email received by the project team, 7 September 2015.

35. Cifor, “Affecting Relations,” 9, 21–22.

36. Email received by the project team, 17 November 2014.

37. Email received by the project team, 22 August 2014.

38. Email received by the project team, 29 May 2017.

39. https://blackersletters.com/.

40. Cifor, “Affecting Relations,” 25–26.

41. https://www.reddit.com/r/history/comments/2r01zt/receive_weekly_emails_from_a_soldier_in_ww1_as_he/.