Although the Irish harp has been depicted in various forms and media since the Middle Ages, the greatest advance in the iconography of the instrument was made in 1904 with the publication in Edinburgh of Robert Bruce Armstrong’s Musical Instruments. Part 1: The Irish and the Highland Harps. This was the first of two volumes he wrote on historic harps and other instruments – Irish, Scottish and English – the second being English and Irish Instruments (Edinburgh 1908).

The 1904 volume is notable for Armstrong’s own meticulous drawings (marked RBA), and for contemporary photographs (some by Armstrong), of the most important Irish and Scottish harps then known to him, as well as for his measured scholarly consideration of the history and nature of the two related harp traditions. A selection of his Irish images is reproduced below.

Robert Bruce Armstrong (died c. 1914) was a Scottish historian and archaeologist, artist and musician. Living in Edinburgh, he was a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland and a life-member of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland. He bequeathed unsold copies of his musical works to the Royal Irish Academy for its benefit.

Robert Bruce Armstrong playing an Irish Harp by John Egan of Dublin