By Antony Ramm, Librarian It’s Day 14 of the Heritage Advent Calendar, and it’s time to look into the history of Christmas. Even Christmas – that eternal day of uniformity – has a history; a history of why people have celebrated Christmas and a history of how people have celebrated Christmas, both changing through time….
Author: Leeds Libraries
Vogue – The Christmas Issue
It’s Day 10 and we really need to start thinking about those Christmas outfits, Jude Ramm, Library & Digital Assistant has been raiding the Art Library closet for something a little bit glam. This Christmas 1958 edition of the ever-glamorous Vogue is billed as the “Young Idea party portfolio” (possible title of my biography?). It…
Victorian Scrapbook
By Jude Ramm, Library and Digital Assistant For day 6 of our Advent Calendar, we’ll turn the Christmas spirit up to eleven with our Victorian Scrapbook. This incredibly beautiful scrapbook was donated to the Art Library in the 1990s. It’s packed full of a variety of Christmas cards, scraps, and cut-outs from the Victorian era…
BlueBeard – Grand Pantomime
By Antony Ramm, Librarian ‘He’s Behind You’ – Day 5 of our Heritage Advent Calendar brings us everyone’s favourite seasonal theatre – Pantomimes. ‘Bluebeard’ and the Leeds pantomime scene go back a long way. While it may not have been the first-ever panto in the town, it was certainly the first at the most prestigious…
Winter Wear
For Day 3 of our Heritage Advent Calendar our Library & Digital Assistant Jude Ramm gives you… formal winter wear in ‘Hand Coloured Fashion Plates 1770-1899’ from the Sanderson Collection. Anyone would be hard pushed not to be the talk of the town in this beautiful ensemble. From the dainty shoes, complete with pom-poms, to…
Snowy Tramscapes by Peter Lapish
We’re kicking off the 2021 festive period with our Secret Library Leeds Advent Calendar. Everyday in the run up to Christmas we will bring you something from our heritage & special collections, all with a seasonal feel. Day 1 – Prints from the Leodis.net photographic archive as chosen by senior librarian Louise Birch Impressionistic watercolours…
DISrupting the arts in Leeds
Gill Crawshaw has been researching examples of disability arts in the Local and Family History Library as DISrupt, a collective of disabled artists, continues this legacy in Leeds. This article is published to mark next week’s International Day of Disabled People on 3 December, and Leeds’ own week of events, Leeds for All. DISrupt, a…
Comic Art and Caricatures in our Collections
In today’s post our Senior Librarian for Special Collections, Rhian Isaac, explores the connection between comic books and some of the library’s prints, books and periodicals from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. This weekend is the annual Thought Bubble Comic Convention, a two day celebration of comics, their creators and their fans. We have…
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