The National Gallery of Ireland is the country's premier art institution. It houses the nation's collection of fine art in addition to a collection of library and archive material relating to the visual arts. The library and archive collections play an invaluable role supporting the work of the gallery and are regularly consulted by external researchers. Surprisingly, for more than a century there was no dedicated library space allocated to this collection. This article explores the development of the collection and the space it has occupied within the Gallery over the last 150 years, chronicling the challenges the gallery has faced housing this growing collection. This article outlines the situation today and concludes with an outline of the gallery's future plans for the library and archive in its efforts to create a space that will be a fitting home for this remarkable collection.