Art, culture & history images

In 1985, a collection of 42,000 photographs – among them, remarkable images and mementos of the Titanic – was uncovered in a Dublin basement. They were the work of a Jesuit priest named Francis Browne, who held passage on the first legs of the Titanic’s maiden voyage. While on board, an American millionaire offered to pay his way through to New York, but Browne’s Jesuit superior providentially ordered his disembarkation in Ireland. After the tragedy in April 1912, Browne’s photographs appeared on the front pages of newspapers around the world, as the sole visual chronicle of the Titanic’s passage from Southampton to Ireland before its doomed voyage to New York.

Father Browne's negatives lay forgotten for 25 years after his death in 1960. It was by chance that a fellow priest discovered Browne's amazing collection in a large metal trunk and brought the negatives to the attention of the London Sunday Times, who dubbed them “the photographic equivalent to the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls.”

The Father Brown Photographic Collection contains his series that started at Waterloo Station with the departure of the “Titanic Special,” documenting the activities of passengers and crew aboard the ship, concluding with the anchor being raised from the water for the final time and the last known shot of the Titanic as she left port.