Following Lauren Stead’s article in May, we now welcome MA student Xuan Li for a further exploration of the Central Library’s Spark Collection… Over the past few months, I’ve had the chance to work on a short-term archive project at Leeds Central Library, exploring the fascinating Spark Collection. This archive is named after Frederick R….
Category: Leeds History
The Leeds Spitfire
Recently we were contacted by Garry Holden who had a photograph, taken by his father, that he thought we might like to include on Leodis, our photographic archive. After talking to Garry for a while we thought the story of his family would make a fascinating blog post and very apt for Armed Forces Day….
Carnivals, Fairs, Shows, Festivals, Feasts and associated Parades in West Yorkshire
This week we hear from Library and Digital Assistant Kirsty Lodge, with a deep-dive into the traditions and heritage of festivities in our region… By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes… Ray Bradbury uses this quotation from Shakespeare’s Macbeth to describe the mix of excitement and fear evoked by the arrival…
VE Day 80th Anniversary
To commemorate the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day, Leeds Libraries have created a gallery of photographs on Leodis, our online photographic archive, showing how the people of Leeds celebrated both VE and VJ Day. But we feel sure there are more images out there so are inviting anyone who may have their own…
Municipal Bedrooms
This week Antony Ramm takes a brief tour around the bedrooms of Leeds… I was recently playing around with the Pot Luck feature on our Leodis image archive (www.leodis.net) to find inspiration for a blog article. (Do try the Pot Luck tool if you’ve not used it before!) One image that instantly stood out of…
Leeds United and the Myth of the White Strip
This week we welcome back guest author Pete Slater. Pete is one of a small team of volunteers working with us for the joint Leeds Libraries/British Libraries Voice of the Fans exhibition celebrating football fanzines and football fan culture. One of Pete’s roles has been research using our microfilmed local newspaper collection – this article…
The Chimney Corner: Secret Books from the Secret Library #10
The latest in an occasionally-regular series exploring books and other items selected from our vast collections. In this entry Librarian Antony Ramm looks at a collection of materials illuminating a late 18th century election in Yorkshire… Our previous entry in this series looked at a slim 18th century volume of Yorkshire topography. In this current article we remain in the…
Basinghall Telephone Exchange
This week’s post is a request from one of our customers – see the poster below for more information. You can contact us on 0113 37 86982 or via localandfamilyhistory@leeds.gov.uk and we can pass your message to the customer.
The Secret Library | Leeds Libraries Heritage Blog 