The William Liddell Collection is an archive of 1600 photographic glass plates that were discovered during the dismantling of the Ewart-Liddell weaving factory in Donacloney, County Down, Northern Ireland in 2007. On first viewing the faint monochromatic images on the glass plate’s look like ghosts from bygone days of refined domesticity [Figure 1–5]. However it became clear that these traces of linen splendour are but a hint of the unique and extensive record of an era of craftsmanship in both the design and production of Irish linen hidden within the William Liddell Collection. The discovery of the photographic plates has provided a rare opportunity to uncover and celebrate the often-understated artistic, design and technical skills of the generations of individuals working in the design offices of the textile industries in Ireland.

The photographic plate preceded film and was used to capture images on a light-sensitive emulsion of silver salts that coated the glass plate. The use of glass plates for photography declined after the 1910’s yet this method of photography appears to have been used to record design work produced in the Liddell design office throughout seven decades of the twentieth century. The earliest recorded date of 1919 can be found on an image of a design for the Hans Crescent Hotel. The latest date recorded is 1972 on a design for South African Railways. This documentary practice appears to have effectively ceased after the William Liddell Company’s merger with the William Ewart Company in 1973 to form Ewart Liddell. It is extraordinary that this form of photographic record was kept and perhaps more astonishing that the observation of everyday affairs of a textile manufacturing design office were the subjects of such an extensive and persistent documentary endeavour.