For much of her life, Patricia Howard knew little about her family’s background. Her father was reluctant to talk about his heritage—a silence shaped by a time when being Irish carried social stigma. Her Irish ancestors immigrated to the United States during the Great Famine, which occurred right at the dawn of photography, a time when the medium was rare, slow, expensive, and not suited to people in the midst of a large-scale crisis. As a result, there are essentially no photographic images of Ireland from this period. Unknown Ancestors was crafted in response to this absence.

This is an image of a house with a shadow highlighting a window and religious statues. It was made with the cyanotype process onto semi-transparent, hand made paper. It has been toned with black tea and stitched with flax thread. Cyanotype is a process developed in the 1840s, the same time period that Ireland was experiencing a famine. Flax is a material historically used in Ireland for fabric and stitching. The tea tones the brightness of the blue cyanotype to a more subdued brown and blue. The paper is ripped and torn in places and the edges of the paper are deckled. The way the light falls, the window and lines of the shadow emphasize the statues which represent Catholicism, the prevalent religion in the Republic of Ireland. © Patricia Howard
This is an image of a house with a shadow highlighting a window and religious statues. It was made with the cyanotype process onto semi-transparent, hand made paper. It has been toned with black tea and stitched with flax thread. Cyanotype is a process developed in the 1840s, the same time period that Ireland was experiencing a famine. Flax is a material historically used in Ireland for fabric and stitching. The tea tones the brightness of the blue cyanotype to a more subdued brown and blue. The paper is ripped and torn in places and the edges of the paper are deckled. The way the light falls, the window and lines of the shadow emphasize the statues which represent Catholicism, the prevalent religion in the Republic of Ireland. © Patricia Howard

During a residency in County Kerry, Ireland, Howard worked in a rural cottage, accepting the constraints of the environment as part of the process. There, she photographed the surrounding landscape, using a deliberately simple, stripped-down setup. “Because there are no photographs from the Great Famine period in Ireland, I turned to landscapes, places still marked by history, as a way to evoke the lives once present there,” the artist explains.

This is an image of the back of a cottage, made with the cyanotype process onto semi-transparent, hand made paper. It has been toned with black tea and stitched with flax thread.. The paper is ripped and torn in places and the edges of the paper are deckled. The cyanotype process was developed in the 1840s, the time period I am reflecting upon. The flax thread was a textile product found in Ireland for centuries, as is black tea. The tea tones the bright blue of the cyanotype into a brown and blue. The image represents a stone cottage, once abandoned, where people once lived and worked as well as surroundings on a cliff overlooking the ocean © Patricia Howard
This is an image of the back of a cottage, made with the cyanotype process onto semi-transparent, hand made paper. It has been toned with black tea and stitched with flax thread.. The paper is ripped and torn in places and the edges of the paper are deckled. The cyanotype process was developed in the 1840s, the time period I am reflecting upon. The flax thread was a textile product found in Ireland for centuries, as is black tea. The tea tones the bright blue of the cyanotype into a brown and blue. The image represents a stone cottage, once abandoned, where people once lived and worked as well as surroundings on a cliff overlooking the ocean © Patricia Howard

After returning to her home of Denver, Colorado, she selected the images she felt best conveyed the area’s character, then translated them into prints by creating digital negatives and contact-printing them on semi-transparent hand made paper coated with Cyanotype. The final works are not just printed surfaces, they are marked by the image of the landscape, inseparable from it.

This is an image made from rosaries and pieces of seaweed. It was made by the cyanotype process onto semi-transparent, hand made paper. Cyanotype is a process developed in the 1840s, the same time period that I am reflecting upon. It has been toned with black tea and bone buttons are attached. The tea tones the brightness of the blue cyanotype to a more subdued brown and blue. The buttons are antique, from the 1800s. The paper is ripped and torn in places and the edges of the paper are deckled. The rosaries represent the prevalent religion in Ireland, Catholicism and the sea weed the ever-present ocean or sea. Both are objects that might remain after ancestors have left this country. © Patricia Howard
This is an image made from rosaries and pieces of seaweed. It was made by the cyanotype process onto semi-transparent, hand made paper. Cyanotype is a process developed in the 1840s, the same time period that I am reflecting upon. It has been toned with black tea and bone buttons are attached. The tea tones the brightness of the blue cyanotype to a more subdued brown and blue. The buttons are antique, from the 1800s. The paper is ripped and torn in places and the edges of the paper are deckled. The rosaries represent the prevalent religion in Ireland, Catholicism and the sea weed the ever-present ocean or sea. Both are objects that might remain after ancestors have left this country. © Patricia Howard

Howard also incorporates objects from Ireland into the series through various techniques. She collected wool from fences and picked wild gorse flowers, pressed them, and attached them to the prints. In addition to these natural materials, she contact-printed objects such as clothing, hair, spoons, and rosaries into the works. These seem to stand in for absent figures, grounding the project in the cultural context of Catholicism and everyday domestic life.“Each one is chosen for its connection to the land and the time period. I wanted to create works that represent human life once present in this place,” she explains. “It seemed to me that, like the landscape, objects connected to people who are now gone could express those feelings.”

This is an image of a dress, made to resemble a christening gown, utilizing the cyanotype process onto semi-transparent, hand made paper. It has been toned with black tea and stitched with flax thread. the black tea tones the bright blue of the cyanotype to a brown and blue. The paper is ripped and torn in places and the edges of the paper are deckled. The cyanotype process was developed in the 1840s, the time period I am reflecting upon and flax thread was a textile product also found in Ireland as is black tea. The christening dress represents Catholicism, infants and lost lives. © Patricia Howard
This is an image of a dress, made to resemble a christening gown, utilizing the cyanotype process onto semi-transparent, hand made paper. It has been toned with black tea and stitched with flax thread. the black tea tones the bright blue of the cyanotype to a brown and blue. The paper is ripped and torn in places and the edges of the paper are deckled. The cyanotype process was developed in the 1840s, the time period I am reflecting upon and flax thread was a textile product also found in Ireland as is black tea. The christening dress represents Catholicism, infants and lost lives. © Patricia Howard

Many of the Cyanotypes in Unknown Ancestors are also carefully embroidered, as Howard threads the mark of her hand across the series. This choice draws on a long lineage of women working with embroidery, while also reflecting her own personal memories. “When I was a kid, I had asthma, and since they didn’t have inhalers then, I often had to stay home from school,” the artist recalls. “My mom taught me how to embroider. It became this calming way to work with my hands.” In the series, embroidery is both a tactile continuation of the image and a gesture shaped by an embodied knowledge carried across generations.

This is an image showing light and fabric floating from a window. It was made with the cyanotype process onto semi-transparent, hand made paper. Cyanotype is a process developed in the 1840s, the same time period that I am reflecting upon. It has been toned with black tea and cheese cloth is attached. The tea tones the bright blue of the cyanotype to a duller brown and blue. The cloth adds a ethereal sense and feeling of timelessness. The paper is ripped and torn in places and the edges of the paper are deckled. I created this piece to reflect upon thoughts of past lives and forgotten ancestors. © Patricia Howard
This is an image showing light and fabric floating from a window. It was made with the cyanotype process onto semi-transparent, hand made paper. Cyanotype is a process developed in the 1840s, the same time period that I am reflecting upon. It has been toned with black tea and cheese cloth is attached. The tea tones the bright blue of the cyanotype to a duller brown and blue. The cloth adds a ethereal sense and feeling of timelessness. The paper is ripped and torn in places and the edges of the paper are deckled. I created this piece to reflect upon thoughts of past lives and forgotten ancestors. © Patricia Howard
Making can be a way to carry loss, as it lets us stay connected to what is gone by giving it shape in the present. Across her images, Patricia Howard builds a visual language of ancestry through objects, landscapes, and processes that hold space for absence. The land itself becomes a carrier of memory. Clothing, hair, and domestic or religious objects stand in for bodies no longer present. Through historic printing techniques and embroidery, each slow gesture reveals attention and care. Rather than representing history directly, Unknown Ancestors creates a space where the past can be felt.