Joseph W. Carey

Joseph William Carey (1859–1937) was an Irish artist. Joseph was the son of the Rev. J. W. Carey, a Moravian Minister at Kilwarlin Moravian Church, Kilwarlin, County Down, Ireland. He trained as an illustrator with Marcus Ward & Co., publishers. When this firm failed in 1899, he set up a business with his brother John Carey and Ernest Hanford at 142 Royal Avenue in Belfast, in latter-day Northern Ireland, where they were joined later by Richard Thomson (brother of the noted illustrator Hugh Thomson, who had trained at Marcus Ward with Carey). Their firm specialised in high quality illuminated addresses, presentation albums, and book plates. Carey's most important commission as an artist was for 13 scenes from Belfast history on canvas for the Ulster Hall in 1903 (restored in 1989 and 2009). Between 1915–35, 26 of his paintings were exhibited at the Royal Hibernian Academy in Dublin. He was a founding member of Belfast Ramblers Sketching Club and Belfast Art Society, and later he became an academician of the Ulster Academy of Arts. His other interests included ballooning and chess. Percy French and Hugh Thomson were both life long friends and frequent visitors to Carey's house at Knock. Examples of his work are in the Ulster Museum, Ulster Folk and Transport Museum, Armagh County Museum, Linen Hall Library, and Harbour Commissioners Office.

Carey was born at Kilwarlin, Co Down, the son of a Moravian minister. He trained as an illustrator with Marcus Ward and Co; when this firm failed in 1899, he set up with his brother and another man at 142 Royal Avenue, Belfast. They specialised in illuminated addresses, presentation albums and bookplates.

Carey was also a landscape painter and founder-member of the Belfast Ramblers Sketching Club and the Belfast Art Society; he was later elected to the Ulster Academy of Arts. His best known work is a series of thirteen scenes from Belfast history (1903) for the Ulster Hall; these were restored in 1989. The Ulster Museum, the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum, Armagh County Museum, the Linen Hall Library and the Harbour Commissioners' Office also have holdings of his work.

Percy French, a lifelong friend, was a frequent guest at his house in Knock.