This week on the blog Helen Skilbeck recounts a fascinating story about a 1940’s library exchange. Back in 1948 two female librarians – one from Aireborough and one from North Carolina – applied to exchange roles for a year. Margaret Scoffield had been appointed the first full-time professional librarian for Aireborough Libraries in 1942. Virginia…
Category: Leeds History
A Brief History of Leeds #13: Modern Leeds
Part thirteen of a series exploring the history of Leeds, using books and other stock resources held in the Leeds Libraries collections. For all the entries in this series, see our dedicated page. Many of the themes identified at the start of this history – innovation, Leeds’ place in national and international networks of trade…
Leeds Gig Heritage
As paper ticket transactions become a thing of the past, the Leeds Local Studies library is creating a living record of Leeds gig history. Anyone with an old ticket stub or a memory of a past Leeds gig can contribute to the collection, and with no end date, this is a collection of tickets and…
Any work that wanted doing
This week we hear once again from artist Gill Crawshaw, who has been delving into the Central Library archives to uncover the hidden history of disability and West Yorkshire’s textile heritage. The article is published to mark the start of UK Disability History Month, which begins on November 18. An exciting exhibition of new artwork is on at…
A Brief History of Leeds #12: The 1970 and 1980s
Part twelve of a series exploring the history of Leeds, using books and other stock resources held in the Leeds Libraries collections. For all the entries in this series, see our dedicated page. The eleventh part of this series looked at the African-Caribbean community in Leeds, and ended with a reflection on the importance of…
A Brief History of Leeds #11: The Post-War City, part 2
Part eleven of a series exploring the history of Leeds, using books and other stock resources held in the Leeds Libraries collections. For all the entries in this series, see our dedicated page. In our tenth part we explored collections relating to Leeds United and its important role as a carrier of the Leeds name…
Women of Beckett Street Cemetery: Theodosia Grimshaw Wilkinson (1831-1901)
This week we hear from Jeanette B of the Friends of Beckett Street Cemetery group about the life and achievements of an inspiring Leeds woman… Whilst researching and reading on the Friends of Beckett Street Cemetery website I was very interested to find a gentleman buried in the Cemetery who was known as the ‘Blind…
A Copper’s Eye: Tom Harper’s Leeds
This week we welcome guest author, Chris Nickson, who tells us about his new exhibition soon to be launched at Leeds Central Library. We generally think of a place as we see it now. That’s completely natural, it’s the way our brains work. But what we’re seeing is only today’s reality. Towns and cities are…
The Secret Library | Leeds Libraries Heritage Blog 