Leeds Central Library invited a group of Leeds Arts University photography students to examine the original photographs that formed the basis of the Leodis website. Their task was to select one or more photographs and produce a creative response. Six responses were selected by librarians to create an exhibition at the library. Here we hear…
Remembering the Leeds Convention: The Challenges of Researching Neglected History
Students from the University of Leeds tackle some important hidden histories in Leeds Libraries’ local collections Ben Beard, Grace Deane, Niave Kilkelly & Nic McDowell – Supervised by Dr Yuexin Rachel Lin On 3 June 1917, as the First World War entered its third gruelling year, more than one thousand delegates from trade unions, left-wing…
Library Connections with Historic Houses of Leeds
This week Library and Digital Assistant Rosaleen explores Leeds’ iconic historic houses and the perhaps lesser known items in our library collections related to them. Leeds is graced with beautiful historic houses and stately homes, all with a rich and interesting history. Although it is the West Yorkshire Archive service that holds estate papers and…
Educating the City: Leeds City Council Papers
Welcome back to Heritage Volunteer Andy Armstrong this week on the Secret Library Leeds blog. This is part seven of Andy’s curation of the Leeds City Council papers held in our Local and Family History department; this time, Andy has been looking at education in Leeds. As always, Andy’s research is accompanied by a research guide……
Family History Fact Checking – Part 4
This week’s article is the final part of Becky’s quest to discover the facts about Peaches Cottage in Middleton. Read parts one, two and three before starting this article. Welcome back to the last part in our series of articles about family history fact checking, using Peaches Cottage Middleton as a starting point. Previously I have been…
The Portraits of John Atkinson Grimshaw
This week Jan Pinder concludes the Atkinson Grimshaw journey with an exploration of his, perhaps lesser known, beautiful portrait paintings. John Atkinson Grimshaw is most famous for his landscapes and in previous blog articles we have focused on his nocturnal scenes of urban lanes and his atmospheric paintings of the centre of Leeds. However, Grimshaw…
Family History Fact Checking – Part 3
This is part three of a four part article by Becky, looking at the Peaches Cottage in Middleton. Read part one and part two before we continue the search. Continuing our journey into the history of Peaches Cottage in Middleton I am going to start looking at another family whose name has been strongly linked…
Grimshaw’s Leeds
In today’s article Jan Pinder takes us on a journey across Leeds through the eyes of renowned artist John Atkinson Grimshaw with modern comparable images of the city today. John Atkinson Grimshaw was one of the most significant artists of the late Victorian era, with a distinct style inspired partly by his fascination with the…
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