A Brief History of Leeds Antiquarians: Part III

This week, Librarian Antony Ramm gives the third part in a brief history of Antiquarians in Leeds, as told using books, manuscripts and other treasures held at the Central Library. You can find further instalments elsewhere on this blog, as well as a research guide detailing the relevant library collections available. In the previous part…

A Brief History of Leeds Antiquarians: Part II

This week, Librarian Antony Ramm gives the second part in a brief history of Antiquarians in Leeds, as told using books, manuscripts and other treasures held at the Central Library. You can find further instalments elsewhere on this blog, as well as a research guide detailing the relevant library collections available. Thomas Dunham Whitaker (1759…

A Brief History of Leeds Antiquarians: Part I

This week, Librarian Antony Ramm gives the first part in a brief history of Antiquarians in Leeds, as told using books, manuscripts and other treasures held at the Central Library. You can find future instalments elsewhere on this blog, as well as a research guide detailing the relevant library collections available. Hans Sloane (1660 – 1753)…

A Brief History of Leeds #4: The 18th-century

Part four of a series exploring the history of Leeds, using books and other stock resources held in the Leeds Libraries collections. For all the entries in this series, see our dedicated page. We left our brief look at the 17th-century with a reference to Ralph Thoresby’s place in an impressive national and international network…

A Brief Tour of Roundhay St. John Church

This week’s article is by researcher Irfan Shah, who illuminates the hidden history of a local Church, one that deserves much wider recognition… One of the jewels in the Central Library’s crown is the wonderful and unique Boyne’s Grangerised History of Leeds (a ‘grangerised’ book is one that has been added to and illustrated ‘by…

A Brief History of Leeds #3: The 17th-century

The third in a series of articles exploring the history of Leeds, using books and other stock resources held in the Leeds Libraries collections. For all the entries in this series, see our dedicated page. In our previous entry in this series, we briefly touched on the emergence of Leeds as a textile market centre…

Much More Than Books: Explorations in our Special Collections

This week, Philip Wilde explores some of the more unusual items held in our vast Collections currently on display.   The Special Collections here at Leeds Central Library comprises of some 17,000 items. The vast majority, of course, are books. However, the collection holds much more than books. Here we shall talk about just a…