Herbert Wood (1860-1955) joined the PROI in 1884 and was regarded as a genial and helpful archivist. Wood was ahead of his time as he regularly engaged in public talks on the PROI’s collections and hosted visiting student groups at the Record Office.
Over the course of his career, Wood published widely on Irish records, however the most significant publication proved to be his ‘Guide to the Records Deposited in the Public Record Office of Ireland.’
It finally made it to print in 1919 after various delays, one of the most significant being the loss of part of the manuscript in a fire at the printer’s premises during the 1916 Easter Rising. The rewritten edition was eventually published after the First World War.
In 1921, on the retirement of Michael J. McEnery, Herbert Wood became Deputy Keeper of the Public Records.
Wood’s Guide has been invaluable for academic researchers in establishing the records that existed prior to the destruction of the PROI during the Civil War in 1922, as well as the records that subsequently survived.
