100th anniversary of first color photos of Ireland

In May and June 1913, two French women arrived in Ireland to capture what are still believed to be the first color images of the country. Madeleine Mignon-Alba and Marguerite Mespoulet were part of a project called “The Archives of the Planet,” inspired and financed by French banker and philanthropist Albert Kahn. He wanted to create a “photographic inventory of the surface of the earth as it was occupied and organized by Man at the beginning of the 20th century.”

This story from Irish Central includes a slide show of the images.

bog flowers

“When Ireland is not a brilliant emerald land, sparkling and fresh, it is a dark country of brown bogs on which the heavy grey sky leans,” Mespoulet wrote in her travel journal. “But in May and June, the bog flowers; the gorse and the white flowers of the marsh open and turn the bog into a festive place.”

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