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Down the years Jacob’s Biscuits introduced new products on a regular basis. Some did not survive the court of consumer taste while others, like Cream Crackers and Fig Rolls, remain proven favourites. From time to time the more popular products got a new label, updated to reflect the style of the time.

This map is what we would now call the development plan for what became Grafton Street. The plan is by the Dublin City Surveyor, John Greene, to the scale of 10 feet to an inch and it is dated 17 January 1680. At that date, Grafton Street was a humble country lane, linking the two open spaces of St Stephen’s Green and Hoggen Green. There was even a municipal dung-heap, known as ‘The Pound’ at the end of the lane.

Dublin City Hall was the venue for our third Heritage Week event, our seminar ‘Living in Victorian Dublin’. Our five speakers each spoke on a different topic, in order to cover all aspects of the Victorian city. Michael Barry was our first speaker. Author of Victorian Dublin Revealed he gave an overview of the entire city, demonstrating how many buildings, both public and domestic, have remained from that era and introducing them through his own splendid photography. Our next two speakers, Dr. Susan Galavan and Dr Jacinta Prunty, formed exact opposites. Susan’s talk was based on her new book Dublin’s Bourgeois Homes: building the Victorian suburbs 1850-1901.

Ardmhéara Bhaile Átha Cliath / Lord Mayor of Dublin Mícheál Mac Donncha will officially launch a new exhibition Jacob’s Biscuit Factory & Dublin: An Assorted History, today, Friday, 8 September at 1pm in Dublin City Library and Archive.Drawing on the vast 330 boxes of Jacob Biscuit Factory Archives held at Dublin City Library, and using beautifully illustrated panels, oral histories, flags and original artefacts, the exhibition tells both a chronological and thematic history of Jacob’s Biscuit Factory. The events of 1913-1922 which impacted on Ireland nationally feature prominently and using the lens of the factory allows the exhibition to provide a unique contribution to the Decade of Commemorations.  The exhibition also tells more broadly the impact of Jacob’s on social, cultural and political life in Ireland throughout the twentieth century.  It includes an impressive time-line showing the changing faces of Jacob’s biscuit labels throughout the decades, and original artefacts such as a locked recipe books, an ‘Irish Free State’ Biscuit tin, employee welfare booklets,  and a truncheon used during the 1913 Lock-out alongside with a  letter from Trade Union leader Jim Larkin. Visitors will find out about the fascinating history of the Jacobs cream-cracker, who was the marketing genius to develop the concept of Jim Figgerty, and how did major national and international events from 1916 Rising to both World Wars impact the business, customers, and staff.Speaking ahead of the launch, Árdmhéara Mícheál Mac Donncha said “Thousands of Dubliners have a personal connection to Jacob’s whether through family members working there or simply a life-time of enjoying their wonderful selection of familiar products. This colourful exhibition focuses on the history of the factory, the workers, the biscuits it produced and its impact on Irish life in the twentieth century. I encourage everyone to take a nostalgic trip down memory lane & visit this tasty exhibition.  Molaim an taispeántas seo do phobal na cathrach agus cuairteoirí.”Margaret Hayes Dublin City Librarian said “This exhibition is the realisation of a journey made possible by a generous donation of company records from Valeo Foods, the Jacobs brand owner, together with a lifetime of committed collecting by Douglas Appleyard. This material was then professionally transformed by the Dublin City Archive team into an accessible archival legacy rich in story and image. Dublin City Council is proud to fund this exhibition through its Decade of Commemorations fund.”The exhibition will be on display at Dublin City Library and Archive, 138-144 Pearse Street, Dublin 2 from Friday 8 September to 28 October 2017. Opening hours are Monday - Thursday 10am-8pm & Friday-Saturday 10am-5pm. Free guided tours are also available every Tuesday morning throughout September & October: Booking required via jacobs-exhib-guided-tour.eventbrite.ieMembers of the public are encouraged to contact Dublin City Library and Archives (DCLA) @dclareadingroom using #jacobsassorted if they have Jacob’s memorabilia which they would like to add to the archive or to share their favourite labels or memories of Jacob’s.In particular DCLA are gathering stories of the after-life of Jacob’s biscuit tins. What did you keep in the tin or box, once all the biscuits were eaten?  For example that spare parts for the first Aer Lingus plane Iolar were carried in a Jacob’s tin!See Also: The Changing Face of Jacob's Biscuits Image Gallery.Further information: [email protected]; 01 674 4997/4848About the Jacob ArchivesThe archives of W & R Jacob and Company were acquired by Dublin City Library and Archive in 2012.  Comprising both the business archives donated by Valeo Foods and the Appleyard Collection donated by Douglas Appleyard, the 330 boxes contain a wide range of corporate records, relating to over 150 years of biscuit making in Dublin.This archive represents a rich and significant contribution to the study of business and commercial life in Dublin in the late 19th and 20th centuries. It also offers valuable information about life in the community of over three thousand Dublin workers, mostly women, who were engaged at any given time during most ofthe company’s manufacturing period. Following a major cataloguing and preservation project, the collection was opened for public access in the Reading Room of Dublin City Library and Archive in 2016.History of the companyThe Company’s Dublin connections originated on 29th June 1851, when it rented premises at 5 and 6 Peters Row, Dublin, on the corner of Bishop street. This building occupies a unique position in Irish history as it was seized and occupied by Irish Volunteers during Easter week 1916, as part of the armed insurrection against British rule in Ireland. In 1975, W & R Jacob’s manufacturing operations moved to a new purpose built factory in the Dublin suburb of Tallaght, where it remained until the factory closed in 2009.  The Jacobs brand lives on today in Ireland via Valeo Foods. 

Dublin City Library and Archive and The Royal Dublin Fusiliers Association presented a seminar titled 'Messines Peace Park: Its contribution to Irish-British reconciliation' on Friday 19 May at The Council Chamber, City Hall, Dame Street.

12th May is Nurses Day when around the world people are celebrating nursing, on what was Florence Nightingale’s birthday.  The Royal College of Nurses theme this year is #nursesheroes and one nurse which most definitely is deserving of this title is Rose Mary Savage (1893-1983), whose personal papers was donated to Royal Dublin Fusiliers Association Archive at Dublin City Library and Archives, and have recently been catalogued. Rose Mary Savage, second of three daughters, was born into an English military family in India of the British Raj in 1893. Her childhood was spent between continents, east and west taking in Northern Ireland where her father had connections. After receiving her secondary education in Sussex England she returned to India at seventeen to spend a number of seasons attending balls, festive ceremonies and doing the rounds expected of any young debutante of her age and social class. A keen observer and talented artist, she kept a diary entering comments and sketches of what she saw.By the end of 1914, Rosemary was newly trained in First Aid by Belfast Centre of St. John’s Ambulance,  and keen to contribute to the war effort. She carried out fund raising events in County Antrim in aid of the ‘Comfort Fund’ for the 13th Royal Irish Rifles over which her father had been put in command.Image: RDFA/107/026 – colour copy of poster: ‘In Aid of The Comfort Fund’Her application to be taken to Women’s V.A.D. (Voluntary Aid Detachment) Department, offering her services as a volunteer nurse was accepted on 16 May 1916 (See item: RDFA/107/027) . She served for three months with the Ulster Volunteer Force Hospital in Belfast and was then sent  to Rouen, France, where she would work with Number 12 General Hospital of the British Expeditionary Force until 30 January 1919. Her sketches of day to day life in the hospital camp were used in nurse-mate Olive Dent’s autobiographical work, A VAD in France published by Grant Richards Ltd., 1917.  While stationed at Rouen Hospital Camp she was visited by her father, who was commander of 13th Royal Irish Rifles, after the Battle of the Somme (1916) in which he had fought and survived. Both received recognition for their exceptional contributions during World War 1.Image: RDFA/107/008 "Night Duty" sketch by Rose Mary Savage.After the War, W. H. Savage rejoined the British forces in India for a while before retiring in 1919 and spending his final days writing about his life in the Indian and British armies. (See Item: RDFA/107/003).  Rose Mary also returned to India and married a Lieut. William E. Maxwell of the 3/10 Beluch Regiment in 1924 and the couple had a son and a daughter. They fled India just before the fall of the British Raj 1947and found a permanent home in Bandon, Co. Cork where they lived out the rest of their lives. William died of a heart condition in 1951. Rose Mary remarried in 1960, a Richard Lee. She ran a farm and livery business along with her new husband and lived to the age of ninety. She died in February 1983 and is buried in her local churchyard at Briny, Co. Cork. In St Peter’s Church, Bandon, her name is on a memorial which lists the local Bandon people who participated in the Great War. The Rose Mary Savage Collection contains 28 items including photographs, newspaper cuttings, reception programs, correspondences, group photos of V.A.D. nurses and medical orderlies, a short biography of R.M. by Tom Burke. The collection can be accessed in the Reading Room of Dublin City Library and Archive, and is also available online via the Digital Repository Ireland. 

Robert Shaw was one of Dublin’s foremost financial experts, with his own bank, Robert Shaw and Son at Foster Place. He was born in 1774. His father, Robert Senior moved to Dublin in the 18th century where he prospered as a merchant and became the Accountant General of the Post Office. In 1785 Robert Senior acquired Terenure House, an estate of 35 acres – a sign of his growing wealth.

The Monica Roberts Collection contains mainly letters she received from Irish Men fighting on the Western Front during World War 1. However two Belgian soldiers also correspond with Monica Roberts, writing in both French and English.  Library Assistant, Finola Frawley has transcribed and translated these letters, and provides us with an insight in their remarkable subjects and contents.Sepia photo of Freddy Berckmans (standing) & José Verachtert (seated). Ref: DCLA/RDFA.01.08.039AFreddy Berckmans serving in D44 2/I of the Belgian Army and writes approximately 17 letters to Monica which span from May 1914 until 24 January 1918 . The letters are mainly written from the Belgian Front, though he was only 17 at the outbreak of World War 1 and was initially in training.  His family and Monica Roberts’ know each other socially and he frequently refers to friends they have in common. He addresses her in the formal “vous” showing respectfulness. The tone is one of affection, humour and deep appreciation for presents she sends to him by post – butter scotch, air pillow, sardines, fountain pen, watch, (pen and watch were both later stolen), pipe & tobacco, writing paper, knife, electric light, inkstand, waterproof clothing, chocolates, cigarettes. A friend they have in common is a Mrs Conner who lives sometimes in Bradford, sometimes in London, and whose delicate health is often mentioned. Freddy’s mother, like Monica Roberts, sings and participates in concerts in aid of the war effort and this is also referred to.In one of his early letters, Freddy gives a breakdown of his 24-hour shift on guard duty, 4 x blocks of 6 hours: 2 hours’ guard followed by 4 hours’ rest from 5 p.m. to 5 p.m. the following day. He is also doing his telephonist exam in order to go to the Front hoping Monica will keep his confidence and not tell his mother.  (31 May 1914, RDFA1.05.004)Studio Photo DCLA/RDFA1.09.018 of Freddy Berckmans sent to Monica Roberts. Ref. DCLA/RDFA1.09.018A (click to enlarge)By late summer 1916 his battery of artillery using four ‘105’ cannons are almost ready to go to the Front & he is very gung-ho saying, “I am very happy to be going to the Front to defend our dear little Belgium… I will never forget my promise to you – the head of the Kaiser, sitting over the piano in your living room while I sing ‘Are we Downhearted? No!’” (21 July 1916 RDFA1.05.007) The Belgian and British battalions in the Somme area seem to hit it off quite well and Freddy makes frequent references to ‘the Tommies’, ‘We are much better off here [St. Quentin] than in Eu. The food is much better produced by the chefs of the Front who have come to meet us. They talk to us like friends and are very nice. We have been wearing khaki for one week now, just like the Tommys’ [translation]. (21 July 1916 RDFA1.05.007)The learning and singing of English songs plays an important part in Private Berckmans’ leisure time, “I learned two more English songs. (Little gray home in the west) and another rag time” [30 October 1916 RDFA1.05.012] and ‘my friend [José Verachtert] shall be very pleased to get some news of you, we sing all our songs together, and he speak English very well” and ‘I should like to learn ‘Yacka Hula Hickey Dula’ [Hawaiian Love song written 1916] and ‘But you can do me a great pleasure in sending me the couplets of "Long, long trail" I got only the chorus, and I want to know it entirely’ [20 October 1917  RDFA1.05.015].A letter written 24/01/1918 giving the address as 55 Upper Mount Street, Dublin with Freddy’s signature but written by fellow soldier & friend, José Verachtert shows the two soldiers’ much anticipated wish to visit Dublin when their next leave came through was fulfilled, ‘I shall of course pay you a visit when I am leaving Dublin I think next week anyway I shall write you the day I shall be able to do so’ [translation]. Interestingly the listing in Thom’s Street Directory for years 1917 & 1919 for that end of Upr Mount Street ran: Nos. 55-61, “Vacant”. No. 62, “Belgian Refugees’ House”.The last we hear of Freddy is a reference to him in a letter written by José Verachtert to M.R., ‘‘Heard accidentally, Freddy's going soon for the Brigadier's examination. Hope he will succeed.’ [12/09/1918].José Verachtert wrote 30 letters to Monica Roberts between July 1917 and January 1919. Born in approximately 1894,  Verachtert is a despatch rider in the Belgian army who has spent enough time in London to speak & write English quite well. His family business was destroyed when the German army bombarded Antwerp causing the death of his father. In one letter he gives a ‘small report from the past few days’ in order to give a glimpse into life of a solider.  He describes vividly the destruction of a pretty Belgian village by German shelling from 17th to end of July 1917 with entries such as ‘July 28th.  Afternoon  Mighty bombardment during many hours with heavy shells; (one of them exploded four yards from the place where Freddy and I were working; we got a lot of ground etc. upon us. It was rather an very unpleasant feeling, to be buried alive!’  (29 July 1917 RDFA1.08.005)Sepia photo of Freddy Berckmans (standing) & José Verachtert (seated). Ref: DCLA/RDFA.01.08.039A (click to enlarge)He speaks a lot of the boredom of the trenches and suffers from depression, common to many soldiers on returning to the Front after being on Leave. He is also frequently worried about what he will do after the war and doesn’t want to be a burden to his widowed mother who is on the Germans’ watch list, she ‘is subjected to a special watch as they [the Germans] suspect her for having helped young men to join the army’. (19 October 1917 RDFA1.08.018)22/11/1917, He gives a run-down of his daily routine, ‘After wake-up which is at 7 a.m. there's breakfast; work from 8 o'clock to 11.30; then rest and dinner. At one o'clock potato peeling. At 1.30 tea break. Work from 2 p.m. until 5 p.m. Supper & wash to freshen up. Then studies begin. Military classes, dry & tiring classes. I have already sat & passed the brigadier's exam and am preparing slowly for other exams’.And speaking of his friend in the same letter, ‘Freddy & I have been meeting up quite a bit this past while. Thanks to him my mood is still up-beat. He is a very dear friend and I love him like a brother.’In his last letter dated 31/01/1919 José says he is living in Anvers, but does not say if he has found a job. However he must have some means as he plans to go to London at the weekend.

A long, long alphabetical list of 174,000 Allied soldiers who died on Belgian soil in the First World War; this is the new and emotive exhibit on display in Dublin City Library and Archive on Pearse Street until the end of March 2017.

The garden suburb of Marino was the first in Ireland and one of the earliest in Europe. It is located on the north side of Dublin City. This small garden village is unusual insofar as it was requested by the people themselves, at a public meeting held in Clontarf Town Hall in 1910. The historic village of Fairview was being redeveloped and the reclamation of land at the nearby Strand was underway in order to provide a public park.