In September 2007, in the Geological Survey of Ireland, a map which had never been unrolled within living memory, was finally taken from its storage space and man-handled down three flights of stairs and opened on to a large table in the foyer of the Survey. At c. 11 feet wide, and of unknown length, extra tables had to be added, to accommodate its length, which finally ended at c. 15 feet.

The name at the top of the map read PROGRESS MAP OF THE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF VICTORIA. This was an Australian map, composed of a number of printed geological maps at the scale of 2 inches to the mile. It also had small woodcuts, depicting two sites near Melbourne, one of the ‘Bone Cave’. The map was printed on paper, backed by linen, and apart from a small section at the top, was in very good condition. The printed maps were of the area, which had gold deposits, and where there had been a Gold Rush to in the 1850’s.

By 1860, there was c. 87,000 Irish born people living in Victoria, a state that never accepted convicts. It is possible that this is the same map, which was sent to the International Exhibition in London, where it was awarded a medal and was then sent to Dublin for the International Exhibition of Arts and Manufactures in 1865, in specially built premises in Earlsfort Terrace. Opened on the 9^th May by the Prince of Wales, the exhibition was open for six months, and visited by 32,962 people. Nothing is known of that particular map since 1865, but we may assume that it was given to the Irish Survey and has been with it ever since, probably stored in its many locations, perhaps in less than ideal conditions. There are no records concerning it in the archives of the survey.

After minimal cleaning, it was decided that the map should go back to Australia, so on the 15 July 2008, a ceremony involving Séan Power, T.D., and Dr. Peader McArdle, the director of the Geological Survey of Ireland, the map was officially handed over to Australia and was received by the Australian Ambassador to Ireland, Anne Plunkett. In the speeches, the speakers all referred to the close links between Ireland and Australia from early times. The map is going to go to the State Library of Victoria in Melbourne, where after some conservation, it will take pride of place.

The names of the people involved in making the map are recorded on it and some are from Ireland. Frederick McCoy was with the Irish Geological Survey for one year from 1845, as a palaeontologist. He then went to Australia and was knighted in 1891. One of the two engravers named was James D. Brown, who had been trained in the Ordnance Survey in Phoenix Park in Dublin. The Local Director of the Geological Survey of Ireland in 1865 was J. Beete Jukes who published (with others) in 1852 a small booklet, LECTURES ON GOLD, for the instructions of emigrants about to proceed to Australia.

Petra Coffey
Geological Survey of Ireland

At an auction of books, maps and manuscripts in Bonhams sale rooms in London, earlier this year, St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, was successful in securing an important manuscript map of part of the lands of the vicars choral of St Patrick’s in the eighteenth century. The records of the vicars choral have not survived and so this is an unexpected find.

The map, which is dated 23 October 1714, is a survey of a lot of ground, roughly in the vicinity of the present Harold’s Cross park. It includes drawings of Mrs Carr’s Mill and the Way Mills of Harold’s Cross. It is the work of the eminent Dublin surveyor, Gabriel Stokes, and it is believed to be his earliest signed map. Writing in Plantation acres. An historical study of the Irish land surveyor and his maps, Professor John Andrews, the doyen of Irish cartographic historians, had previously dated Stokes’ earliest signed map to 1716.

Gabriel Stokes was born in 1682 and attended the King’s Hospital after which he was apprenticed to Joseph Moland who became Dublin City Surveyor in 1706. He drew maps for both the Dublin cathedrals, Trinity College, and the Erasmus Smith schools and was Deputy Surveyor General of Ireland, 1748-52.

This new map has been transferred to the Representative Church Body Library, Dublin, which holds the archives of St Patrick’s Cathedral.

Raymond Refausse
Representative Church Body Library

The papers of Vernon Hayden were deposited by his family to the Irish Theatre Archives held at Dublin City Archives. Born into a theatrical family in c. 1914, Vernon Hayden was a stalwart of comedy, variety and pantomime in the Gaiety Theatre and Theatre Royal from the 1930s until his death in 1990. His personal papers consisted of over 250 theatre photographs, as well as theatre programs, posters, playbills, pantomime scripts, correspondence and memorabilia. The collection has now been listed and can be viewed in reading room of Dublin City Library and Archive, 138-144 Pearse street, Dublin 2. 

The Vernon Hayden collection formed an important component of the programme of events held at Dublin City Archives for Archives Awareness Month in September 2008. On the 4^th September the bulbous-nosed, hollow-eyed villains played by Vernon Hayden in over fifty years of panto with O’D company and the Gaiety Theatre were bought back to life in a theatrical performance which was appropriately titled ‘The Best Baddie in the Business’. Spine-tingling moments from Hayden’s life on the road were also recounted in this visual physical performance written and preformed by Valerie Coyne, and inspired by researching Hayden’s own papers. Items from the collection and a biography of Hayden are also on display in the Dublin City Library and Archive reading room for the month of September.

Ellen Murphy
Dublin City Archives