We believe this copy of the 1912 Kelly’s Directory of the West Riding of Yorkshire to be our longest single-volume book. The 1912 Kelly’s Directory is just one in a large collection of such trade directories that the Local and Family History department holds – primarily for Leeds, but also covering the wider West Riding…
Author: Leeds Libraries
A Library at War: Leeds Central Library during WW2
Today we hear from regular guest author Mike Harwood, who tells the story of this building during the tumult of World War 2… ‘Tuesday, 31 October 1939: “Felt energetic so polished several floors and worked fairly hard. Tony came home to lunch at 1.30, and the afternoon somehow slipped away….Went to the library and got…
The Silent Traveller in the Yorkshire Dales
This week we hear from Library Officer, Will Poulter, on a surprising perspective of the Yorkshire Dales… One of the joys of working in the library is that sometimes I come across books that strike me, that I may never have known exist. This happened recently when I came across a modest journal by a Chinese…
The History of Book Illustration
This week Central Collections Manager, Rhian Isaac discusses The History of Book Illustration through our collections here in Central Library. Illustrated texts pre-date the printed book by thousands of years but unfortunately much has been lost from early civilisations, such as Greece, China and Rome due to the fragility of the material. Ancient Egypt is the exception…
The Golden Age of Childhood
Join us on an exploration of classic children’s books from our collection and the evocative illustrations that accompanied them. Many books that we now regard as children’s classics, such as Aesop’s Fables and the stories of Grimm and Anderson, were originally written for adults. They were simply tales intended to inform and instruct. In 1860,…
Yorkshire – owt or nowt?
Librarians Antony Ramm and Sally Hughes report on a Yorkshire-themed collections day school for arts students… This week the Central Library welcomed two groups of design students from the Leeds Arts University to explore our collections on the theme of Yorkshire. The aim was to inspire these young creatives to develop work that explored the subject…
New Research Guide: Yorkshire Battles
This week we hear from Josh Flint, from the Local and Family History department of the Central Library, who introduces his recent research into books exploring the rich history of battles and other conflicts in Yorkshire… Yorkshire has been the battleground for some of the bloodiest, treacherous and most vicious battles ever fought in Britain. This…
A new Civic Hall for Leeds
Last week was the 85th anniversary of the opening of one of the most recognisable buildings in Leeds – the Civic Hall. Librarian Helen Skilbeck looks back at the opening day itself where King George V and Queen Mary visited Leeds to officially open the building. The idea of building a new Civic Hall was…
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