Auto Archives - Motoring Through History - #ExploreArchives

Today's theme looks at cars and the history of motoring in various collections. Being able to look back and admire the design and engineering of early cars in the twentieth century also prompts us to look at how the needs of motorists have also changed over the years. Records from the Galway Town Commissioner's ledgers of minutes and correspondence (Collection LA4) show how in 1918, as the War was still ongoing in Europe, a concern for the local Town Commission was the level of damage being caused to local roads owing to the increased volume of army vehicle traffic. Read the entry from the volume in full below:

 Some other items and images of interest are from the photographic archive of Jean Ritchie and George Pickow. Ritchie was a celebrated American folk singer, who was part of the famous 'Singing Ritchies' family of Appalachia area of America. On Fullbright scholarship trip to Ireland in the early 1950s, Jean travelled around Ireland collecting folk songs from various individuals. Accompanied by her husband George Pickow, their trip records not only the image below of Jean with, perhaps, a Daimler car in 1953. (A positive I.D. on the make and model of the car is welcome!)

Also of interest within this collection are wonderful images of Dublin's O'Connell street in the early 1950s. We are used to seeing Dublin's streets choked with traffic today but we can but imagine the quite recent past of the 1950s where bicycles far outnumbered the number of cars on Dublin's main thoroughfare. These images show another side of Irish society, before the motor car became the primary mode of transport in today's society. It is also of the period between when Dublin's original tram system was removed and today's modern LUAS was reinstalled onto Dublin's streets.

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