Skip the NI Direct Bar

Download Adobe Reader

The Allison Digitisation Project

Freeholders' records search screen Example of an online index available on the PRONI website Researching the records
In order to provide another rich online resource for local historians and genealogists, during 2010 PRONI carried out a project to digitise images from the Allison Photographic Collection.  Priority was given to wedding and family group portraits as these form almost half of the entire collection and are an excellent primary information resource for those reasearching family history.

Project summary

The project consisted of the digitization of a sub-set of the glass plate negative collection of the Allison Photographic Studio, Armagh (PRONI Ref: D2886).  High-resolution digital images have been stored for preservation purposes by PRONI and digital copies made available to a global clientele using the photo sharing web-application ‘Flickr’ Opens a new browser window..  

Project benefits

The benefits of the project are to increase user accessibility to the material and to aid its long term preservation.  Using Flickr for access also enables visitors to make online comments about the images, thus helping to enrich our knowledge of the collection, and giving PRONI customers another avenue in which to engage with the archives and their local history.

The archive

Circa 3,000 glass plate negatives, filling c.60 standard archive boxes, make up the entire collection. Due to the fragility of the media, the glass plates are closed to the public on preservation grounds.  The image subjects include wedding, family and other portraits; military portraits; school groups; religious portraits; operatic, dramatic and musical groups; sporting groups; scenes of towns and countryside; buildings, shop-fronts, furniture and other objects.

Selection of images

This project focuses solely on the digitization of the glass plate negatives which are of the following types of subject matter:
  1. Wedding groups (1150 negatives)  
  2. Family groups and portraits (186 negatives)
  3. Other portraits and populated scenes (c.194 negatives).
These groups of images were selected as digitisation priorities as they are rich sources of information for genealogists and local historians.

Project Workstages

  • Ordering and re-boxing of the glass plate negatives that were to be digitized.
  • Image Capture
  • Creation of high resolution preservation copies (TIFF format) and lower resolution access copies (JPEG format) for the web
  • Uploading and organizing the access copies on Flickr (ongoing)
  • Creating link from PRONI website to PRONI Flickr Photostream
  • Ongoing monitoring and maintenance
For further information about the project, please contact PRONI.

Further Information