In this blog post Rhian Isaac, Senior Librarian for Special Collections and Heritage, shares a deadly discovery. One weekend I stumbled upon an intriguing article in National Geographic that highlighted the Winterthur Museum’s Poison Book Project, and it instantly caught my attention. I was captivated with the idea of poisonous books lying undetected in library collections,…
Author: Leeds Libraries
Healing the City: Health and Wellbeing in the Leeds City Council Archives
This week on the Secret Library we hear from one of our heritage volunteers on a significant piece of cataloguing work we’ve asked them to help us with… Hi. My name’s Andy Armstrong and I have taken on the task of sifting through 200 years of Leeds City Council papers held by the library to…
An American Exchange in Aireborough
This week on the blog Helen Skilbeck recounts a fascinating story about a 1940’s library exchange. Back in 1948 two female librarians – one from Aireborough and one from North Carolina – applied to exchange roles for a year. Margaret Scoffield had been appointed the first full-time professional librarian for Aireborough Libraries in 1942. Virginia…
A Brief History of Leeds #13: Modern Leeds
Part thirteen 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. Many of the themes identified at the start of this history – innovation, Leeds’ place in national and international networks of trade…
Brigandines
This article is part of our series on the current Fantasy: Realms of Imagination exhibition, taking place at the Central Library until January 2024… There are lots of exciting things to discover in the Local and Family History department at any time, but if you visit during the Fantasy exhibition, it’s even more exciting! Amongst…
Tolkien in Leeds: Back again
In this short article, Librarian Antony Ramm explores a small but valuable addition to our collection of Tolkien-related materials at Leeds Central Library. This article is part of our series on the current Fantasy: Realms of Imagination exhibition, taking place at the Central Library until January 2024… As most people probably know, legendary fantasy author…
Taking inspiration from Terry Pratchett
In this article Library and Digital Assistant Becky Bavill points us towards some sources of Terry Pratchett’s creativity in the Central Library collections. This article is part of our series on the current Fantasy: Realms of Imagination exhibition, taking place at the Central Library until January 2024… You can’t talk about fantasy without talking about…
Fantasy: Realms of Imagination
Our new exhibition, inspired by Fantasy: Realms of Imagination at the British Library opened in November and aims to bring a bit of magic to Leeds Central Library over the cold winter months, before touring to community libraries across the city. The beautiful grade II* listed building with its winding staircases and heraldic beasts lends…
The Secret Library | Leeds Libraries Heritage Blog 