This week we hear from Library Officer Kiera Falgate on images of historic Leeds in the Central Library’s collection of The Builder, an architectural journal that begin in the mid-19th-century… The Art Library on the first floor in Leeds Central Library holds the complete collection of The Builder from volume 1 in 1843 to the final volume…
Author: Leeds Libraries
The Magic of Books from the Golden Age of Illustration
This week we hear from illustrator Teresa Flavin on some magically-illustrated books from her childhood… When I was about nine years old, my family visited a used bookshop where I discovered a fairy story with graceful line illustrations. The book was cheap enough to buy with my pocket money and though it was somewhat battered…
Leeds Baby Week and US. Patent 3,216,423
This week, Librarian Louise Birch takes a look at an intriguing patent for Leeds Baby Week: an “Apparatus Facilitating the Birth of A Child By Centrifugal Force”. Leeds Central Library is home to a Business and Intellectual Property Centre, part of a network of regional centres here to help out all you inventors, designers and…
November 11, 1918: A Brief History of Leeds on Armistice Day
Librarian Antony Ramm takes a look at Leeds on the day the First World War ended… When the Lord Major Joseph Henry announced to the people of Leeds that “the armistice has been signed and that fighting has been stopped from 11 o’clock this morning,” he sparked celebratory scenes which commenced almost immediately. Crowds began…
Leeds in the First World War: New Leodis Collection
To commemorate the centenary of the end of the First World War, it seems a good time to delve into our Leodis photographic archive to see how Leeds fared during this period. The image below shows a recruiting tram for the Leeds Pals, a volunteer battalion from the business and professional communities of the city,…
The Hallowe’en Special
This week Librarian Sally Hughes talks ghost-busting and all things spooky… With Hallowe’en upon us it’s the perfect time to point you in the direction of our most ghoulish collections here at Central Library. The first place to be is right here at our The Supernatural research guide. You can find all these books on our online…
Yorkshire Cricket History
Librarian Antony Ramm takes a brief look at Cricket resources available in the Library… The Local and Family History department at the Central Library has a strong collection of books and other material relating to Yorkshire and Leeds’ sporting history, the best of which can be seen in our Sport in Leeds Research Guide –…
A Partial History of Leeds Central Library
This last Wednesday, to mark National Libraries Week, four of our Local and Family History team, plus one intrepid volunteer, delivered a talk offering a brief history of Leeds Central Library, primarily derived from material found in several volumes of news-cuttings covering public libraries in Leeds. So, this week on the Secret Library we offer…
The Secret Library | Leeds Libraries Heritage Blog 