by Antony Ramm, Local and Family History, Central Library As part of our Light Night celebrations, the Library is hosting a display of rare books on the subject of light, optics and astronomy. Alongside classics by such prominent scientists and philosophers as Galileo Galilei, Alexander von Humboldt, Christiaan Huygens, Nicolaus Copernicus and Isaac Newton, visitors…
Category: Treasures & Discoveries
Read More: Black History Month – the American Civil War and the End of Slavery
by Antony Ramm, Local and Family History, Leeds Central Library This is an entry in our Read More series. These are ‘long-form’ articles, where staff offer a curated and detailed look at areas of our book collections, usually based around a specific theme or subject. These posts aim to guide the interested reader through to those books that…
What’s in a Noun?
Our weekend of Heritage Open Day tours is in full swing here at Leeds Central Library – and places are all now fully booked up (sorry!). This year, as well as enjoying a trip around the nooks and crannies of our grand Victorian building, our visitors are getting a peek at some little treasures from…
Read More: Magna Carta – ‘The Great Charter’ of 1215
by Antony Ramm, Information and Research, Central Library This is an entry in our Read More series. These are ‘long-form’ articles, where staff offer a curated and detailed look at areas of our book collections, usually based around a specific theme or subject. These posts aim to guide the interested reader through to those books that offer a…
Counties on the Cards
Tucked away in the depths of our library stacks is a little box about the size of a cigarette packet. Inside is a complete deck of Robert Morden’s Playing Cards – or, to be strictly accurate, a facsimile of the set, because only one original pack of these particular cards, produced in 1676, is known…
Read More: Little Chunks of History
by Ross Horsley and Antony Ramm, Local and Family History, Central Library This is an entry in our Read More series. These are ‘long-form’ articles, where staff offer a curated and detailed look at areas of our book collections, usually based around a specific theme or subject. These posts aim to guide the interested reader through to those…
In Fairyland
If you visit Leeds College of Art’s exhibition space in their Blenheim Walk site before 26th February, you will find a supernatural celebration dating back almost a century. Based around the Cottingley Fairies series – photographs taken by two young girls near Leeds in 1917 in which they interact with ‘fairies’ – In Fairyland invites…
A Curiosity of Heraldry
Investigating our holdings of heraldry for our display case, we came across perhaps a unique collection, “Engravings of Arms Miscellaneous” bound, no author or date, although the material within maybe dates it c1790. Engravings of Arms Miscellaneous An interesting and curious book which for all intents and purposes is a scrap book collection of heraldry/coat…
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