Beschreibung:

An archive of papers, photographs and sketches Frederick William Ryan KM (1883-1956)
Provenance: The family of F. W. Ryan Dublin-born barrister, man of letters and amateur artist, F. W. Ryan was educated at Clongowes Wood College, Trinity College Dublin and the London School of Economics. In 1928 he went to Malta to repo... ort on the archives of the Order of Malta. After five years he moved to London to continue his written work on the Order. In 1937 he returned to Ireland to found the Catholic Association for International Relations, which operated throughout WWII. In 1943-1944 he was posted to the Foreign Office and War Office in London; on trips back to Dublin he lectured on the history of Malta to the RDS and the Irish Historical Society. His interests encompassed Irish history, particularly the United Irishmen Wolfe Tone and Robert Emmet, antiquities, publishing and poetry. Contained in the archive are 25 of Ryan’s pencil sketches, all of them Irish, mostly of country homes, although some are of his friend the playwright Lennox Robinson, most of them signed and inscribed; an illuminated manuscript poem by Ryan in the Revivalist style; signed pen and ink sketches of wounded soldiers returning to Dublin in 1915; a printed calendar with a reproduction of Ryan’s drawing of St Teresa’s in Clarendon Street Dublin, dated 1942; a framed watercolour and pencil sketch of Oliver Goldsmith’s grave (illustrated right), signed and dated [1926]; three manuscript letters, one from a correspondent called M. I. Allingham, of Ballyshannon, Co. Donegal, thought to be a descendant of the poet William Allingham and his artist wife Helen - enclosed with the letter are two verses, one said to be by William Allingham, titled Abbey Asaroe and two watercolours of the abbey and bridge at Ballyshannon by M. I. Allingham. Early on in his career, circa 1927, Ryan established a publishing firm at 86 Lower Leeson Street, from where he released Modern Ireland Illustrated, a series of portraits of eminent Irish men with accompanying letterpress, for 2s.6d a piece. He employed the services of Darius MacEgan (1856-1939) to draw the portraits. Included here are two copies of the prospectus, seven advertising flyers announcing the portraits of Tim Healy and President Cosgrave, photos and a b&w lithograph of Healy (by MacEgan); the same again for Cosgrave but with the printed folder and letterpress; the manuscript dummy copy for the Robert Emmet pamphlet, with ink lettering inside and out and the original pencil drawing of Emmet by MacEgan pasted in; a variety of photographs and manuscript material concerning the Wolfe Tone pamphlet, including MacEgan’s pencil portrait of the bust in TCD library, newspaper clippings reporting the 1933 Wolfe Tone celebrations, annotated by Ryan, and a letter from Cahill & Co., who printed the Wolfe Tone Souvenir for Ryan; plus Lord Ashbourne - an Intimate Pen Picture by Charlotte Dease, published by Ryan and with eight related photos laid in. Also Dublin Shrines: Number One - Shrine of St. Anne at the Church of St. Audoen, High Street, with a lithograph by MacEgan, printed by Goodridge’s and distributed by F. K. Ryan, with order form enclosed. Also a folder of 19 photographs of Irish interest; better include a scene in Castlecomer Co. Kilkenny, woodland scenes near Blarney Co. Cork, St Stephen’s Green and Wine Tavern Street, Dublin. Lastly, manuscript notes relating to a pamphlet titled A French Consul in Ireland, 1789-1792: Two Note Books of the Baron Coqueber de Montbret... By F. W. Ryan. The 22 page pamphlet (stapled wrappers, pages uncut) reproduces a talk that was read before the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland on 9 December 1930 and is inscribed by the author. Also his manuscript notes and translations of the notebooks (which are held in the Bibliotheque Nationale Paris), and typed manuscript copy of the Baron’s Carnets de Voyage... a travers Ireland. An interesting lot. Also contains an original pen and ink caricature of F. W. Ryan by Isa Macnie more