Mary Rosse and Photography

Mary, nee Field, was born at Heaton Hall, near Bradford in Yorkshire, in the north of England, in 1813. She was the eldest child of John Wilmer and Anne Field and her father was a wealthy landowner in the area. She may have met William Parsons during a stay in London. They were married on the 14th of July, 1836 in the parish church in Heaton. Around this time, William Parson's father, the second Earl of Rosse was considering moving to Brighton on the south English coast for health reasons, and he invited the newly married couple to move to Birr castle. Mary Rose designed and had built a suite of furniture "The Sugar Candy Gothick" bedroom suite, and refused to move to Birr Castle until it was built. She later added a nursery wing to the castle, as well as improvements to the interior of the Castle.

She contributed significantly to life in Birr Castle and her relationship with her husband was one of close collaboration and partnership. She was held in high regard by the people of Birr, particularly after her efforts to relieve suffering during the Great Famine of 1845-47. Mary financed famine relief work, keeping over five hundred men employed in construction work with and around the Castle Demesne.

Family life was permeated with sadness as only four of her eleven children reached adulthood. Her first and only daughter, the Lady Alice, was born in 1839 but died only eight years later. Mary was strict but affectionate and protective with her children and her involvement in their education bore the results of high intellect and achievement.

The Countess also took her responsibilities for the day to day running of the castle very much to heart, as can be seen from the instructions she wrote on "the duties of the kitchen boy"

"His hours of attention shall be from 6 o'clock in summer and 7 o'clock in winter...and after taking out the ashes will kindle and supply throughout the day the kitchen housekeepers room, Mr. Colonvale's room, servants hall and brushing room fires with turf. He will, unassisted, carry in the water used in the kitchen, clean the housekeepers room knives and forks, clean the boots and shoes belonging to the housekeeper, the cook and Mr. Colonovale and sweep, as often as necessary, the room where the knives and shoes are cleaned. Assisted by the cow herdsman, he will, every second day, pump the water required for the closets. He will also feed the fowl, clean their houses, go such errands as the housekeeper and cook may require and when in the house, consider it his duty to answer the back door bell. The personal fulfilment of these besides the usual daily duties of spitting meat and winding the jack are the only conditions on which any kitchen boy can be suffered to remain in employment."

In June 1842, Mary's husband William began experiments with the daguerreotype photographic process. The next evidence of photographic work at Birr is correspondence between the 3rd Earl and William Fox Talbot, the inventor of negative/positive photography. Although the Earl's attempts at astronomical photography were unsuccessful, Mary had discovered a talent for photography. Her early photographs seem to have been of the telescopes, in the grounds of the demesne. On the 2nd of February, 1854, Lord Rosse wrote to Fox Talbot stating :"Lady Rosse has just commenced photography, and I enclose a few specimens of her first attempts: presently she will do better." Fox Talbot asked the Earl to: "Pray give my thanks to Lady Rosse for her very interesting specimens of photography. Surely there are portions exhibiting the details of the telescopes that are all that can be desired". Fox Talbot then had these photographs framed and exhibited at the Photographic Society's first show in London. Her work earned her the Photographic Society of Ireland's Silver Medal, Mary being the first recipient of such an honour.

The material of hers that has survived include superbly composed animated groups, intimate portraits, fine landscapes, views of the telescopes built by her husband and group photographs which show a sensitively trained eye and a sense of spontaneity.

Stereo Photography at Birr

Mary Rosse's interest in photography began at a time when stereoscopic photography was becoming popular. This was due to the invention by Sir David Brewster in 1848 of a practical instrument, which was easy to use. By the mid 1850's it was possible to buy stereo photographs of famous monuments and views from all over the world. She first used a camera of very early design and a number of her negatives survive in good condition. A Dallmeyer camera of later design with two lenses, enabling both negatives to be exposed simultaneously, was used by the Countess in later years. The Birr collection contains some fine hand-tinted "tissue" stereo transparencies and stereo daguerreotypes, both home produced and purchased from professionals.

The Darkroom

One of the rooms of the castle contains a darkroom dating to the 1850's. It was probably set aside by the Third Earl, during his early attempts to photograph the Moon. Mary, Countess of Rosse, continued to use it intensively for more than a decade, as did the Fourth Earl until 1908. The science of photography was in its infancy in the mid 19th century, the highly stable emulsions which are commonplace today, had not been invented. This meant that photography was more akin to chemistry than art. Photographers were forced to prepare their own sensitised plates from glass slides with a preparation of Silver Nitrate. The laboratory where she worked is, as far as we know, the only darkroom which has survived, virtually intact, from the middle of the nineteenth century.

Equipment and chemicals used by Mary Rosse and many of her negatives and stereoscopic prints were found on shelves and in wooden boxes. The room was a photographic time capsule, having lain untouched until 1983, and its rediscovery was an exciting date in the history of photography.

Ironically, Mary Rosse's most significant contributions, in the area of photography, actually spelled the death knell for the great telescope, which, due to the nature of its mounting, was not suitable for celestial photography.

Not only was Lady Rosse a photographer of note, she was also a skilled blacksmith and was responsible for the wrought iron work on the great telescope tube, and also for the magnificent gates to the estate, which are still in use today.

Following are some of the Photographs taken by Mary Rosse;

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