This week Local and Family History’s Josh Flint and Scott Ramsey – PHD Researcher, School of History, The University of Leeds – tell us about the exciting Exhibitions from the International Brigade Memorial Trust and the Basque Children of ’37 Association coming to the Leeds Central Library from the 19 March – 5 April. This…
Category: Social History
The Sheepscar Triangle – the Irish community in Leeds
This week, as part of Irish History Month, Librarian Helen Skilbeck looks back at some of the local haunts of the Irish community in Leeds and the specific importance of the Sheepscar triangle. 1968, bottom of Roundhay road. Sheepscar Library is in the back centre of the photo and the Pointer Inn is to the…
Jewish Leeds in the Central Library Collections: Jacob Kramer
A brief overview of an important Central Library collection relating to the history of the Jewish community in Leeds. The Jacob Kramer Collection This is a small selection of personal material belonging to Jacob Kramer, the influential Leeds-based artist. The box contains, among other items, a framed photograph of Kramer, taken by Hatley Bacon in…
Cross-dressing in Yorkshire
This week we welcome guest writer Lauren Wells, Post-Graduate Researcher at the University of Leeds, who explores the history and meaning(s) of cross-dressing in Yorkshire… My research examines men who cross-dressed in Yorkshire from the end of the nineteenth century until the eve of the Second World War. When I first conceptualised this project, I…
“Who was David and why should we remember him?”
This week’s article is written by Nina Whitfield, a BA History student at Leeds Beckett University. Nina was one of a student group who visited the Central Library in late 2018 for a workshop utilising books and other resources in the Local and Family History department to research the life and times of David Oluwale……
A Brief History of Morley Churches
To mark the refurbishment of Morley Library as Morley Community Hub, Assistant Community Librarian, Helen Thomson, presents a brief history of the Saint Mary’s-in-the-Wood Church of Morley. This article is based on a local history zine that Helen has previously created – that zine is reproduced below, along with some photographs of the Church, as…
The Deaf Community of Leeds: A Partial History
This week on the Secret Library, Librarian Antony Ramm looks at books or other printed objects held at the Central Library, all highlighting different aspects of the Leeds deaf community’s story. The early 19th-century As seen in reports held at the Central Library, children Leeds were pupils at the Yorkshire Institution for Deaf and Dumb Children…
Yorkshire Battles: Battle of Wakefield, 1460
This week Josh Flint from the Local and Family History Department will be using the new Research Guide on Yorkshire Battles to examine the fascinating Battle of Wakefield in 1460 which saw the death of Richard, Duke of York and has been argued to have changed the course of English History while also highlighting the exceptional items…
