Calling all Photographers The Gallaher Project Needs You In 2007, pictures of some old cigarette cards were posted by Joseph Burns to the Photography Ireland Forum. The cards were part of the "Irish View Scenery" collection issued by Gallaher Ltd. between 1908 and 1910. The complete set runs to 600 cards. Many of the featured photographs were taken by the great Robert John Welch, who was born in Strabane in 1859. R.J.Welch went on to become the official photographer for Harland & Wolff, Belfast, where the Titanic was built. The old cigarette cards caught the attention of the forum members not only due to the quality of the photography, but also because of the interesting social history contained within them. Alan Rossiter, another forum member, suggested that the members should collectively try to recreate these old views to see how the country has changed over the passage of more than 100 years. I personally got involved in this project with my recreation of card number 242 as part of my Antrim cave project. Since then, I have been inspired to collect the cards and have now amassed somewhere in the region of 460 of these. I have now scanned the cards and they are available for everyone to view at the link below. I hope that they inspire photographers all over Ireland to post their recreations onto to the Gallaher section of the Photography Ireland Forum. Find my scans here. Gallaher list indexed by Number Browse thumbnails The project is ongoing at the following site. This is where you should post your new photographs. Photography Ireland - Gallaher Section Thanks to Mark Tracey at PI for setting up a permanent home for this project.

Scan kindly supplied by Joseph Burns Photograph taken in 2007 by Gary Hawkins