For our last post of the year – a curated list of previous articles on the Secret Library Leeds about all things Winter and Christmas. Plenty of reading material here to get you through the next two weeks! We shall return with our regular programming in the first week of January. Season’s greetings to all…
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Marie de France
Dr Marta Cobb, from the University of Leeds, has written this article about a fascinating woman writing in the Middle Ages. We tend to assume that most authors of the Middle Ages were men, when really most authors of the medieval period are simply unknown. So it is possible that there were far more women…
The Albert Hall, later Leeds Civic Theatre
This week we welcome guest blogger, Geoffrey Mogridge, who has written extensively on the history of classical music in Leeds. Here he looks at the history of the building we now call Leeds City Museum. The central arena of the City Museum in Cookridge Street had two earlier lives. This was originally the Albert Hall,…
Coronations in our Collections
As King Charles III’s coronation approaches, we take a moment to reflect on the rich history of coronations in our collections. From the earliest days of official record keeping, to the illustrated newspapers of the 20th century, we have lots of interesting material documenting the ceremonies and celebrations surrounding these momentous occasions. Some of the…
For King, Country & Home
The much anticipated ‘For King, Country & Home’ Exhibition is now open in the Local Studies department, second floor, of the Leeds Central Library and runs until June 24th. The exhibition looks at the lives of Jamaican WWII veterans of Leeds and includes rare photographs, keepsakes and memories gathered over the years by the families…
Rare Book Round Up – Aquatic
Each week our Collections Manager Rhian, brings you our ‘Rare Book of the Week’ on our social media accounts. Too good to be lost in the daily deluge of tweets and Instagrams we wanted to bring you a round-up of some of our favourites. This week we’re going aquatic. Starting with the two youngest, ‘Tortoises,…
The Lady’s Magazine
This week on the blog we hear from Library & Digital Assistant Becky Bavill, who explores and illuminates the rich history of an 18th and 19th-century journal… The Lady’s Magazine – not to be confused with The Lady Magazine – was a popular publication in the 18th and 19th centuries, running from 1770 to 1818…
Do You Believe in Fairies?: The Story of The Cottingley Fairies Retold in a New Installation
‘And then I said, “Those fairies we see – let’s take a picture!”‘ In the summer of 1917, cousins Frances Griffiths and Elsie Wright claimed to have seen fairies by Cottingley Beck. The photographs they took would later be described by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle as having the potential to ‘mark an epoch in human…
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