The Lawrence collection consists of thousands of glass plate photographic negatives of cities, towns, and famous landmarks of Ireland dating from 1870 to 1910. In the 1990s, the Federation of Local History Societies and the Federation for Ulster Local Studies resumed the project with the cooperation of 77 volunteer photographers. In this project, thousands of photographs from Lawrence collection were replicated approximately one hundred years later, thereby creating a modern collection to complement the Lawrence Collection.

The objective was to facilitate the future study of the changing topography of cities, towns, and rural areas throughout Ireland by recording on film the constant changes in the physical environment. Scenes were selected based on perceived significance, variety of subjects (with an emphasis on street scenes), and geographical spread. As well as placing a full set of prints (the Lawrence and the new) with the National Library of Ireland and the Ulster Museum, the Federation of Local History Societies and the Federation For Ulster Local Studies also distributed a set of prints relating to scenes within each county in the Republic of Ireland to the corresponding county library.