Thursday 15 May 2014

A Great Find - The Butler-Graham Collection of photographs, 1860s-1950

In the 1970s Ian Crawshaw was interested in a few photographs in a second-hand book shop in his hometown of Ilkley, West Yorkshire in the UK. The proprietor insisted that he buy the whole album for £5. As he was leaving the shop the owner handed him a box of photographs which had come in with the album. The photographs in the album and the box relate to the Butler-Graham family of Castle Crine, Sixmilebridge. Over the years, Mr Crawshaw has been gleaning information from the photos, a big clue being a photo of the grave of Sophia Mary Graham which told him that she was the wife of Colonel J.H. Graham & relict of James Butler Esq DL of Castle Crine and that she died in 1887 aged 53. In February of this year, he decided to scan the photos and Googled ‘Castle Crine’, leading him to an article on Clare County Library’s website - The Memoirs of Keighley Edward Graham 1904-1974 - donated by Keighley’s grandson, Grant Miocevich. Ian has now identified many of the people in the photographs, is in contact with descendants of the family and had met Liz Clennett, Keighley Graham’s daughter. Ian Crawshaw has very generously donated his scans of the collection to Clare County Library, and they can be viewed here...

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