In May and June 1913, two French women arrived in Ireland to capture what are still believed to be the first color images of the country. Madeleine Mignon-Alba and Marguerite Mespoulet were part of a project called “The Archives of the Planet,” inspired and financed by French banker and philanthropist Albert Kahn. He wanted to create a “photographic inventory of the surface of the earth as it was occupied and organized by Man at the beginning of the 20th century.”

This story from Irish Central includes a slide show of the images.

“When Ireland is not a brilliant emerald land, sparkling and fresh, it is a dark country of brown bogs on which the heavy grey sky leans,” Mespoulet wrote in her travel journal. “But in May and June, the bog flowers; the gorse and the white flowers of the marsh open and turn the bog into a festive place.”