On the 20th March 1865 at the age of 24 William Mervin Lawrence opened a Photographic Studio opposite the G. P .O. at Sackville street Dublin. Over the years the studio successfully photographed the length and breadth of Ireland from Howth Head in the East to Achill Head in the West, and from Malin Head in the North to Skibbereen the South. The collection consists of 40,000 glass plates mainly from the period 1880-1914, but some plates go back to 1870.