The Estate Map in Context: landed estate collections and their cartographic contents

Join Luke Murphy, our 2024 NLI Research Studentship for a talk about the history of estate cartography in Ireland.

Across Ireland, maps and surveys survive in estate papers ranging from those of the ‘great’ landowners to the smaller estates of gentlemen farmers and large leaseholders. Maps and surveys had multiple uses, varied greatly in size, ornamentation and function, and acted as practical instruments at the hands of those managing and owning landed estates. They were both a visual aid for, and a product of, estate management, commissioned for land sale, purchase, improvement, boundary disputes and ornamental purposes, among other things.

This talk explores the history of estate cartography in Ireland from the late seventeenth century to the founding of the Ordnance Survey in the nineteenth. Cartographic sources found within landed estate papers will be discussed, as will their potential as tools for historical inquiry.

This talk will take place in the Joly Lecture Theatre at the National Library of Ireland.

Free event, booking is required.