This section includes records relating to the financial and business affairs of the Capuchin Publications Office. The files include orders and receipts, account books and journals, associated with the printing and publishing of the 'Annual'.
This subseries includes a very large collection of photographic albums and prints that capture Irish Capuchin missionary activity in Zambia from the commencement of work in what was then Northern Rhodesia in 1931. The photographs can be used to reconstruct missionaries’ actions, trace the evolution of their work and their interactions with local inhabitants, and assess their impact as agents of western contact with African society. The photographic archive also offers an insight into indigenous political, social, and economic history in the areas where the Capuchin missionaries were active.
The subseries includes research on St. Joseph’s Cemetery, Cork. In February 1830 Fr. Mathew secured a lease of the Botanic Gardens which became the city’s first Catholic cemetery. A portion of the ground was also set aside for the free burial of the poor, whose bodies had previously been left outside their dwellings until sufficient money was collected for their internment.
A very large collection of metal stereotypes and photoengraving plates (most of which are mounted on wooden blocks) used for printing purposes for 'The Capuchin Annual'. Photoengraving was a process used in preparing illustrations for printing by transferring images to metal plates by a combination of photography and acid etching. Photoengraving was widely used in making plates for various printing processes, reproducing a wide variety of graphics such as lettering, line drawings and photographs. A stereotype consisted of engravings from a drawing or from an illustration. If required, duplicate stereotypes could be set beside text composed on a linotype machine and headings in hand-set type. Photoengraving plates and stereotype blocks were frequently mass-produced for advertisements and were sent to various printers, newspapers and publishers. These photoengraving plates and stereotype blocks were transferred (many still extant in filing cabinets) to archival storage following the closure of the Capuchin Publications Office in 1977. Many of the plates and blocks are numbered but only a few have identifying captions or annotations.
