Dr. Alaric Hall will deliver a talk at Leeds Central Library on the 12th of October, using the Special Collections at the University of Leeds, to explore the scholarships and friendships made by J.R.R. Tolkien during his time (1920-1925) in Leeds, and how these affected his creative writing. Ahead of that talk, Local History Librarian,…
Category: Historical Figures
Captain Cook and Doctor Priestley: A Library Tale for Our Times
Heritage volunteer Tony Scaife imagines a secret meeting of great minds in 18th century Leeds… Having borrowed a copy of Peter Whitley’s Lord North: The Prime Minister Who Lost America from Leeds Libraries, I became intrigued at the similarities between the 1770s and today. As his many Whig critics claimed, Lord North’s bungling government negligently lost…
Tales from Thomas Wilson: Hans Sloane, Ralph Thoresby and the British Museum
by Antony Ramm, Local and Family History, Central Library A new book explores the life and work of Hans Sloane, the 17th and 18th-century Antiquarian, collector and Gentleman scholar. Sloane’s collections were so extensive and unique that they formed the basis of the British Museum on his death in 1753. While Leeds had to wait…
Letters From the Past
by Antony Ramm, Local and Family History, Central Library While researching upcoming events on the life and career of the 18th-century Leeds Schoolmaster and Antiquarian, Thomas Wilson, we were directed by the ‘manuscripts’ section of the card catalogue in our Local and Family History department toward a very-intriguing collection of letters: The particular interest this…
A Snapshot of Leeds on June 3, 1917
by Antony Ramm, Local and Family History, Central Library Tomorrow will mark a century since a nationally significant, but oddly little-known, event in the history of Leeds: the 1917 Peace Convention at the Coliseum. This “saw 3,500 people from across Britain gather at the Leeds Coliseum (now the O2 Academy) in solidarity with the February…
New Addition to our Collections: Samuel Marsden
by Antony Ramm, Local and Family History, Central Library The broad outline of Samuel Marsden‘s life and works are well-known: born Farsley, 1764, Samuel emigrated to the Australian colonies in 1793 after accepting an appointment as assistant to the Chaplain of New South Wales. There he took up residence at Parramatta, where he had charge…
Who Led Leeds? Case Study #1: Maud Dightam
by Antony Ramm, Local and Family History, Central Library This article also forms #3 in our occasional People of Leeds series – a celebration of lesser-known contributors to the Leeds story. Many readers will be familiar with the name and the achievements of Alice Bacon, the first woman elected as an MP in Leeds. And…
Who Led Leeds? Public Service between the Wars
University of Leeds PhD student Pushpa Kumbhat is working on a new project with the support of Leeds Central Library’s Local and Family History department. She writes… We are creating a collection of short biographies commemorating the lives of public servants – local leaders of Leeds who served on the Council between the First and…
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