As sometimes happens in Local and Family History, Library Assistant Becky Bavill fell down a rabbit hole the other day, lets join her on her adventure. While helping a customer find information about railway wagons our indexing system returned this result: I went and found the article and sure enough, there she was, in a…
Category: Historical Figures
Woodbine Lizzie
For International Women’s Day 2023 we’re going to delve into the Leodis photographic archive and look at a woman who followed her own path, regardless of social conventions, and while doing so left a mark on the collective memory of Leeds residents. The undated image shows a woman who was once a very familiar character…
I Was Here: Diversity in Georgian Yorkshire
This week we hear from independent researcher Danny Friar, who offers a brilliant and sensitively-researched excavation of the Georgian era, revealing fragments of a hidden, but universal, history… Ten years ago a discussion of the Georgian period may have brought up names such as Lord Horatio Nelson, Captain James Cook, William Wilberforce and Jane Austen….
Eating People is Wrong? Cannibals and Heroes on the First Crusade (1096–1099)
This week on the Secret Library Heritage Blog we have guest author Hannah Mackenzie. Hannah is a PhD candidate at The University of Leeds and has recently delivered an incredible talk with us at the Leeds Central Library on this fascinating subject. You can learn more about Hannah and her exciting research on her university…
Mary Gawthorpe, Alice Stone Blackwell and Florence Pethick Lawrence: Three Inspirational Women from the Women’s Suffrage Movement
Todays blog post comes from MA students Sophia Lambert, and Rebecca Illidge who are volunteering with Leeds Libraries to index the Gawthorpe Papers. The Mary Gawthorpe Papers are an incredibly valuable and rich resource and are available to view on microfilm at the Leeds Central Library. Mary Eleanor Gawthorpe was born in Woodhouse, Leeds, on…
The amazing career of aviation correspondent, author and journalist Allen Rowley
This week’s post is written by Geoff Carter. Geoff has also kindly loaned items belonging to Allen Rowley to our 2022 Breaking the News exhibition and donated some incredible 18th century newspapers to our permanent collection. Allen Rowley was born at Thornhill, Dewsbury, and as a nephew of the village newsagent, started delivering the Yorkshire…
The Black Freedom Struggle in Nineteenth-Century Leeds
On the Secret Library this week we hear from guest author Dr Hannah-Rose Murray from the University of Edinburgh. Hannah-Rose will be discussing her new book entitled African American Narratives and Speeches which will published in 2022. During the nineteenth-century, African American freedom fighters and survivors of U.S. chattel slavery made radical and politicized journeys across…
People of Leeds #19: The Pioneering Life of Jessie Beatrice Kitson
On the Secret Library this week we hear from Local and Family History’s Josh Flint who in celebration of International Women’s Day writes about the first women to be Mayor of Leeds, Jessie Beatrice Kitson and examine how she is represented in the Local and Family History Collection. This pioneer was part of the famous…
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