Tucked away in the depths of our library stacks is a little box about the size of a cigarette packet. Inside is a complete deck of Robert Morden’s Playing Cards – or, to be strictly accurate, a facsimile of the set, because only one original pack of these particular cards, produced in 1676, is known…
Author: Leeds Libraries
1920s Eclipse Fever
“Leeds never really went to bed last night. The last ordinary trams had scarcely stopped running at midnight, when a special series of ‘eclipse’ cars began the journey to City Square to meet the convenience of the thousands going to the shadow-belt by rail and charabanc.” This was the news that greeted the city from…
Leeds from the Air
This week saw the opening of the Britain from the Air exhibition outside the Central Library on Victoria Gardens in Leeds. This is a major national, outdoor touring exhibition of over 100 stunning aerial photographs. These images offer a chance to see some fascinating images of landscapes and landmarks and tell wonderful stories of Britain’s geography…
Stepping Out
Last week’s fossil hunt on the Secret Library blog had us running up and down our impressive stone staircases more times than we’d care to mention. And, while we all agreed the fossils themselves were pretty interesting, the one thing we couldn’t seem to reach a consensus on was how many steps there were from…
Read More: Little Chunks of History
by Ross Horsley and Antony Ramm, Local and Family History, Central Library This is an entry in our Read More series. These are ‘long-form’ articles, where staff offer a curated and detailed look at areas of our book collections, usually based around a specific theme or subject. These posts aim to guide the interested reader through to those…
In Fairyland
If you visit Leeds College of Art’s exhibition space in their Blenheim Walk site before 26th February, you will find a supernatural celebration dating back almost a century. Based around the Cottingley Fairies series – photographs taken by two young girls near Leeds in 1917 in which they interact with ‘fairies’ – In Fairyland invites…
A Curiosity of Heraldry
Investigating our holdings of heraldry for our display case, we came across perhaps a unique collection, “Engravings of Arms Miscellaneous” bound, no author or date, although the material within maybe dates it c1790. Engravings of Arms Miscellaneous An interesting and curious book which for all intents and purposes is a scrap book collection of heraldry/coat…
A Day at the Races
Did you know that Leeds had its very own race ground in Stourton Park back in the 1820’s? It didn’t last long and faced criticism throughout its life span for encouraging gambling and immoral behaviour. It was situated opposite the former Skelton Grange Power Station on the south side of the River Aire and was…
The Secret Library | Leeds Libraries Heritage Blog 