This week we hear from M.A. student Hannah Cullen on the history of a little-known but highly-influential cultural movement in Leeds and, specifically, its connections with the women’s suffrage movement. Research such as this can be done using Library resources like local newspaper archives and relevant books or pamphlets. A previous article on the Secret…
The Arrest of Miss Winifred Virtue
As sometimes happens in Local and Family History, Library Assistant Becky Bavill fell down a rabbit hole the other day, lets join her on her adventure. While helping a customer find information about railway wagons our indexing system returned this result: I went and found the article and sure enough, there she was, in a…
Back-to-back houses in Harehills…the story continues
University of York PhD researcher Joanne Harrison has been working on an exciting project about the past, present and future of back-to-back houses and their communities in Harehills since 2014. A new exhibition, now at Leeds Central Library, provides the findings of her research. Joanne writes… Producing an exhibition at the end of my PhD…
The Chimney Corner: Secret Books from the Secret Library #5
The fifth in a newly-regular series exploring books and other items selected from our vast collections. In this entry Librarian Antony Ramm showcases a wonderful collection of photographs showing Unitarian Churches across Yorkshire in the late 19th-century… This is a really nice volume, a collection of images and historical notes about Unitarian Chapels across Yorkshire….
The Alternative Heritage of Leeds
This week we welcome guest blogger, Festival of Gothica, who tell us about a new project working jointly with Leeds Libraries. Leeds has a rich alternative heritage but was influential in birthing the goth subculture as we know it today. Other cities celebrate their musical history and shape their events and tourism around it, Liverpool…
Woodbine Lizzie
For International Women’s Day 2023 we’re going to delve into the Leodis photographic archive and look at a woman who followed her own path, regardless of social conventions, and while doing so left a mark on the collective memory of Leeds residents. The undated image shows a woman who was once a very familiar character…
I Was Here: Diversity in Georgian Yorkshire
This week we hear from independent researcher Danny Friar, who offers a brilliant and sensitively-researched excavation of the Georgian era, revealing fragments of a hidden, but universal, history… Ten years ago a discussion of the Georgian period may have brought up names such as Lord Horatio Nelson, Captain James Cook, William Wilberforce and Jane Austen….
Rare Book Round Up – Nature
Each week our Collections Manager Rhian, brings you our ‘Rare Book of the Week’ on social media. Too good to be lost in the daily deluge of tweets and instagrams we wanted to bring you a round-up of some of our favourites. The theme this time is nature. How stunning is this Granulated Cuttle illustration?…
The Secret Library | Leeds Libraries Heritage Blog 