Contained in the Guinness Archives: From Arthur’s signature to Obama’s keg
Pub labels from the Guinness Archives
Arthur Guinness’s authentic signature, contained in a Brewers’ Guild minute e-book from 1769. Photograph: Pól Ó Conghaile
Eibhlin Colgan, Guinness Archive Supervisor
Guinness Archive Supervisor Eibhlin Roche factors to a hand-painted e-book given to Benjamin Lee Guinness. Photograph: Pól Ó Conghaile
A Guinnes barge on the River Liffey in 1948. Photograph: Guinness Archives
Pyramids of Guinness casks, round 1948. Photograph: Guinness Archives
The Guinness cooperage yard, c. 1920. Photograph: Guinness Archives
Coopers elevating a cask, c. 1948. Photograph: Guinness Archives
An previous ‘creamer’, with which residence customers may ‘nitrogenate’ bottled Guinness. Photograph: Pól Ó Conghaile
A Guinness drayman ‘at faucet’ – or gathering his each day beer allowance – round 1910. Photograph: Guinness Archives
Photograph: Guinness Archives
A choice of John Gilroy’s drawings and ideas, from the Guinness Archives. Photograph: Pól Ó Conghaile
Pub labels within the Guinness Archives. Photograph: Pól Ó Conghaile
An early vacationer brochure from the Guinness brewery. Photograph: Pól Ó Conghaile
Guests to St James’s Gate have been as soon as taken on excursions by rail… Photograph: Pól Ó Conghaile
The bottle utilized in Guinness’s 1959 ‘Message in a Bottle’ advertising and marketing marketing campaign… Photograph: Pól Ó Conghaile
An early 19th century label from Neary’s pub in Dublin. Photograph: Pól Ó Conghaile
Guinness brewers and designers take inspiration from the archives…
An archival photograph of Guinness barges being loaded on the River Liffey.
Contained in the Guinness Archives: From Arthur’s signature to Obama’s keg
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It doesn’t take lengthy to get goosebumps.
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It doesn’t take lengthy to get goosebumps.
Standing in a small, behind-the-scenes room within the Guinness Storehouse, I’m watching Guinness Archive Supervisor Eibhlin Colgan delicately ease open a centuries-old Brewers’ Guild minute e-book.
Its creamy, wispy-worn pages give off a musty whiff.
“There it’s,” she says, pointing a white-gloved finger at a looping flourish that’s, certainly, one of the vital well-known signatures on Planet Earth.
Eibhlin Colgan, Guinness Archive Supervisor
Pub labels from the Guinness Archives
Arthur Guinness’s authentic signature, contained in a Brewers’ Guild minute e-book from 1769. Photograph: Pól Ó Conghaile
Guinness Archive Supervisor Eibhlin Roche factors to a hand-painted e-book given to Benjamin Lee Guinness. Photograph: Pól Ó Conghaile
A Guinnes barge on the River Liffey in 1948. Photograph: Guinness Archives
Pyramids of Guinness casks, round 1948. Photograph: Guinness Archives
The Guinness cooperage yard, c. 1920. Photograph: Guinness Archives
Coopers elevating a cask, c. 1948. Photograph: Guinness Archives
An previous ‘creamer’, with which residence customers may ‘nitrogenate’ bottled Guinness. Photograph: Pól Ó Conghaile
A Guinness drayman ‘at faucet’ – or gathering his each day beer allowance – round 1910. Photograph: Guinness Archives
Photograph: Guinness Archives
A choice of John Gilroy’s drawings and ideas, from the Guinness Archives. Photograph: Pól Ó Conghaile
Pub labels within the Guinness Archives. Photograph: Pól Ó Conghaile
An early vacationer brochure from the Guinness brewery. Photograph: Pól Ó Conghaile
Guests to St James’s Gate have been as soon as taken on excursions by rail… Photograph: Pól Ó Conghaile
The bottle utilized in Guinness’s 1959 ‘Message in a Bottle’ advertising and marketing marketing campaign… Photograph: Pól Ó Conghaile
An early 19th century label from Neary’s pub in Dublin. Photograph: Pól Ó Conghaile
Guinness brewers and designers take inspiration from the archives…
An archival photograph of Guinness barges being loaded on the River Liffey.
It belongs, in fact, to Arthur Guinness. In our digital age, in a relentless stream of copies and screens, there’s one thing disarming about such a pure, hand-written piece of historical past. The founding father of Guinness wrote onto these pages on Thursday, January 29th, 1767. And right here we, over 260 years later, wanting on the identical ink and paper. I really feel slightly tingle travelling by time.
Surprisingly few of Arthur’s authentic signatures exist, I study – even the lease on show within the Storehouse is a duplicate; the unique vellum doc, which secured a 9,000-year maintain on the St James’s Gate website, is rigorously stowed within the archives.
“That is only a drop within the ocean,” Eibhlin tells me.
A historian and archivist from Tralee, Co Kerry, she is in her factor. One other e-book, a trove of early 20th century pub labels, may have come from Hogwarts. It harks again to a time when Guinness was nonetheless dispatching barrels of porter in barges from the brewery, and pubs bottled and labelled it themselves.
Arthur Guinness’s authentic signature, contained in a Brewers’ Guild minute e-book from 1769. Photograph: Pól Ó Conghaile
Pub labels from the Guinness Archives
Eibhlin Colgan, Guinness Archive Supervisor
Guinness Archive Supervisor Eibhlin Roche factors to a hand-painted e-book given to Benjamin Lee Guinness. Photograph: Pól Ó Conghaile
A Guinnes barge on the River Liffey in 1948. Photograph: Guinness Archives
Pyramids of Guinness casks, round 1948. Photograph: Guinness Archives
The Guinness cooperage yard, c. 1920. Photograph: Guinness Archives
Coopers elevating a cask, c. 1948. Photograph: Guinness Archives
An previous ‘creamer’, with which residence customers may ‘nitrogenate’ bottled Guinness. Photograph: Pól Ó Conghaile
A Guinness drayman ‘at faucet’ – or gathering his each day beer allowance – round 1910. Photograph: Guinness Archives
Photograph: Guinness Archives
A choice of John Gilroy’s drawings and ideas, from the Guinness Archives. Photograph: Pól Ó Conghaile
Pub labels within the Guinness Archives. Photograph: Pól Ó Conghaile
An early vacationer brochure from the Guinness brewery. Photograph: Pól Ó Conghaile
Guests to St James’s Gate have been as soon as taken on excursions by rail… Photograph: Pól Ó Conghaile
The bottle utilized in Guinness’s 1959 ‘Message in a Bottle’ advertising and marketing marketing campaign… Photograph: Pól Ó Conghaile
An early 19th century label from Neary’s pub in Dublin. Photograph: Pól Ó Conghaile
Guinness brewers and designers take inspiration from the archives…
An archival photograph of Guinness barges being loaded on the River Liffey.
Each doc tells a narrative (see gallery). “For those who have been to put out our paper supplies finish to finish, they’d stretch about seven kilometres,” she says.
All instructed, that is the biggest personal enterprise archive in Eire. I’ve been allowed a sneak peek as a part of a promo marketing campaign for Worldwide Stout Day – celebrations are held on the primary Thursday of each November, and this yr, the Guinness Storehouse is operating a competition from November 1-Four, with a bunch of occasions and tastings together with a one-off stout brewed for the event.
The Storehouse is Eire’s most visited vacationer attraction, clocking over 1.7m guests a yr. The archives are one other story. Supplies date again to 1759, however the archives themselves weren’t formally established till 1998, and choose supplies are accessible by appointment solely.
Historians, collectors, Guinness entrepreneurs, household historical past researchers “and anybody with an curiosity within the Guinness firm and model” is formally welcome – although you want a selected request, and appointments are given on this small room within the Storehouse (versus the climate-controlled storage amenities themselves).
An archival photograph of Guinness barges being loaded on the River Liffey.
Guinness brewers and designers take inspiration from the archives…
An early 19th century label from Neary’s pub in Dublin. Photograph: Pól Ó Conghaile
The bottle utilized in Guinness’s 1959 ‘Message in a Bottle’ advertising and marketing marketing campaign… Photograph: Pól Ó Conghaile
Guests to St James’s Gate have been as soon as taken on excursions by rail… Photograph: Pól Ó Conghaile
An early vacationer brochure from the Guinness brewery. Photograph: Pól Ó Conghaile
Pub labels within the Guinness Archives. Photograph: Pól Ó Conghaile
A choice of John Gilroy’s drawings and ideas, from the Guinness Archives. Photograph: Pól Ó Conghaile
Photograph: Guinness Archives
A Guinness drayman ‘at faucet’ – or gathering his each day beer allowance – round 1910. Photograph: Guinness Archives
An previous ‘creamer’, with which residence customers may ‘nitrogenate’ bottled Guinness. Photograph: Pól Ó Conghaile
Coopers elevating a cask, c. 1948. Photograph: Guinness Archives
The Guinness cooperage yard, c. 1920. Photograph: Guinness Archives
Pyramids of Guinness casks, round 1948. Photograph: Guinness Archives
A Guinnes barge on the River Liffey in 1948. Photograph: Guinness Archives
Eibhlin Colgan, Guinness Archive Supervisor
Arthur Guinness’s authentic signature, contained in a Brewers’ Guild minute e-book from 1769. Photograph: Pól Ó Conghaile
Pub labels from the Guinness Archives
Guinness Archive Supervisor Eibhlin Roche factors to a hand-painted e-book given to Benjamin Lee Guinness. Photograph: Pól Ó Conghaile
Exterior, vacationers swirl across the shiny, pint-shaped atrium on their journey by hi-tech shows to a Gravity Bar that can double in dimension subsequent yr as a part of a €16m growth plan. When Eibhlin pulls on her white gloves nonetheless, time travels in the other way.
She exhibits me fantastically written recipe books (no images allowed… the recipes are proprietorial). There’s a hand-painted quantity given to Benjamin Lee Guinness by the “Residents of Dublin” to mark his bankrolling of the restoration of St Patrick’s Cathedral within the 1860s. Different “artefacts” within the assortment embrace barley grains from King Tutankhamun’s tomb.
Round us, cupboards are filled with classic glass and stoneware bottles, and Eibhlin has laid out a mouthwatering pattern of charcoal drawings – John Gilroy’s drafts of toucans, ostriches and different animals. Guinness brewers and entrepreneurs generally draw on previous labels, recipes and promoting ideas for inspiration, I study – a contemporary reboot of its West Indies Porter, for instance, noticed brewers seek the advice of an authentic recipe from 1801.
Within the hallway outdoors, a small assortment of artefacts features a Guinness fireman’s helmet, draught can ‘widgets’ invented within the 1990s, and the keg from which President Obama’s Guinness was served in Moneygall in 2011.
The bottle utilized in Guinness’s 1959 ‘Message in a Bottle’ advertising and marketing marketing campaign… Photograph: Pól Ó Conghaile
An archival photograph of Guinness barges being loaded on the River Liffey.
Guinness brewers and designers take inspiration from the archives…
An early 19th century label from Neary’s pub in Dublin. Photograph: Pól Ó Conghaile
Guests to St James’s Gate have been as soon as taken on excursions by rail… Photograph: Pól Ó Conghaile
An early vacationer brochure from the Guinness brewery. Photograph: Pól Ó Conghaile
Pub labels within the Guinness Archives. Photograph: Pól Ó Conghaile
A choice of John Gilroy’s drawings and ideas, from the Guinness Archives. Photograph: Pól Ó Conghaile
Photograph: Guinness Archives
A Guinness drayman ‘at faucet’ – or gathering his each day beer allowance – round 1910. Photograph: Guinness Archives
Coopers elevating a cask, c. 1948. Photograph: Guinness Archives
The Guinness cooperage yard, c. 1920. Photograph: Guinness Archives
Pyramids of Guinness casks, round 1948. Photograph: Guinness Archives
A Guinnes barge on the River Liffey in 1948. Photograph: Guinness Archives
Guinness Archive Supervisor Eibhlin Roche factors to a hand-painted e-book given to Benjamin Lee Guinness. Photograph: Pól Ó Conghaile
Eibhlin Colgan, Guinness Archive Supervisor
Arthur Guinness’s authentic signature, contained in a Brewers’ Guild minute e-book from 1769. Photograph: Pól Ó Conghaile
Pub labels from the Guinness Archives
An previous ‘creamer’, with which residence customers may ‘nitrogenate’ bottled Guinness. Photograph: Pól Ó Conghaile
Guinness wasn’t all the time a stout, Eibhlin tells me. Arthur’s authentic brew was an ale – he made what she describes because the “momentous choice” to stop brewing it in 1799 in favour of porter. “Clearly, historical past has proven that he made the suitable choice, however it was fairly a courageous transfer. There have been no different unique porter brewers at that stage.”
I’m additionally amused to study that the creamy ‘draught’ Guinness, which looks like such a cornerstone of Irish tradition, solely made its debut in 1959. It was launched as a 200th anniversary celebration.
That anniversary was additionally marked by a gob-smacking ‘message in a bottle’ marketing campaign that noticed 150,000 specifically commissioned bottles full of scrolls and dumped into the oceans. Something like it will be an environmental (and PR) scandal right now, however the bottles are nonetheless washing up world wide.
A Guinness drayman ‘at faucet’ – or gathering his each day beer allowance – round 1910. Photograph: Guinness Archives
Pub labels from the Guinness Archives
Arthur Guinness’s authentic signature, contained in a Brewers’ Guild minute e-book from 1769. Photograph: Pól Ó Conghaile
Eibhlin Colgan, Guinness Archive Supervisor
Guinness Archive Supervisor Eibhlin Roche factors to a hand-painted e-book given to Benjamin Lee Guinness. Photograph: Pól Ó Conghaile
A Guinnes barge on the River Liffey in 1948. Photograph: Guinness Archives
Pyramids of Guinness casks, round 1948. Photograph: Guinness Archives
The Guinness cooperage yard, c. 1920. Photograph: Guinness Archives
Coopers elevating a cask, c. 1948. Photograph: Guinness Archives
An previous ‘creamer’, with which residence customers may ‘nitrogenate’ bottled Guinness. Photograph: Pól Ó Conghaile
Photograph: Guinness Archives
A choice of John Gilroy’s drawings and ideas, from the Guinness Archives. Photograph: Pól Ó Conghaile
Pub labels within the Guinness Archives. Photograph: Pól Ó Conghaile
An early vacationer brochure from the Guinness brewery. Photograph: Pól Ó Conghaile
Guests to St James’s Gate have been as soon as taken on excursions by rail… Photograph: Pól Ó Conghaile
The bottle utilized in Guinness’s 1959 ‘Message in a Bottle’ advertising and marketing marketing campaign… Photograph: Pól Ó Conghaile
An early 19th century label from Neary’s pub in Dublin. Photograph: Pól Ó Conghaile
Guinness brewers and designers take inspiration from the archives…
An archival photograph of Guinness barges being loaded on the River Liffey.
“Final yr, we had a name from a radio station in Nova Scotia,” Eibhlin says. “A woman had been strolling on the seaside along with her daughter, discovered one and wished to know slightly extra about it. In order that they’re nonetheless turning up right now…”
The archives are additionally filled with pictures. We flick thru black-and-white photos of draymen “at faucet” (gathering their each day allowance of beer); of monumental “cask pyramids” within the yards, of males loading freight onto Liffey barges; of Victorian grasp brewers of their pomp.
My over-riding feeling is simply how inextricably the historical past of Guinness is linked with that of Dublin – a reality underscored by its assortment of some 20,000 worker data courting from the 1880s to the 1980s.
Eibhlin exhibits me one authentic, rolled right into a compact bundle like an previous newspaper. Key information from these data has by now been extracted and saved in a database, permitting for genealogical queries from direct relations.
“After we began that service, I imagined the curiosity would largely come from our American and abroad guests,” she says. “However it has really been Irish individuals themselves.”
After an hour-and-a-half, she closes the final e-book. From that easy signature in a Brewers’ Guild e-book to right now’s, Diageo-owned, globe-straddling model, even my brief taster tour tells an epic story.
Guinness Archive Supervisor Eibhlin Roche factors to a hand-painted e-book given to Benjamin Lee Guinness. Photograph: Pól Ó Conghaile
A Guinness drayman ‘at faucet’ – or gathering his each day beer allowance – round 1910. Photograph: Guinness Archives
Pub labels from the Guinness Archives
Arthur Guinness’s authentic signature, contained in a Brewers’ Guild minute e-book from 1769. Photograph: Pól Ó Conghaile
Eibhlin Colgan, Guinness Archive Supervisor
A Guinnes barge on the River Liffey in 1948. Photograph: Guinness Archives
Pyramids of Guinness casks, round 1948. Photograph: Guinness Archives
The Guinness cooperage yard, c. 1920. Photograph: Guinness Archives
Coopers elevating a cask, c. 1948. Photograph: Guinness Archives
An previous ‘creamer’, with which residence customers may ‘nitrogenate’ bottled Guinness. Photograph: Pól Ó Conghaile
Photograph: Guinness Archives
A choice of John Gilroy’s drawings and ideas, from the Guinness Archives. Photograph: Pól Ó Conghaile
Pub labels within the Guinness Archives. Photograph: Pól Ó Conghaile
An early vacationer brochure from the Guinness brewery. Photograph: Pól Ó Conghaile
Guests to St James’s Gate have been as soon as taken on excursions by rail… Photograph: Pól Ó Conghaile
The bottle utilized in Guinness’s 1959 ‘Message in a Bottle’ advertising and marketing marketing campaign… Photograph: Pól Ó Conghaile
An early 19th century label from Neary’s pub in Dublin. Photograph: Pól Ó Conghaile
Guinness brewers and designers take inspiration from the archives…
An archival photograph of Guinness barges being loaded on the River Liffey.
“It’s not only a file of a beer,” Eibhlin says. “It’s a file of all that Guinness was.”
NB: The Worldwide Stout Day competition runs from November 1-Four on the Guinness Storehouse (guinness-storehouse.com; from €18pp). For extra on the Guinness Archives, go to guinness-storehouse/archives.com.
Learn extra:
First Look: Inside 14 Henrietta Avenue – Dublin’s latest museum
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