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…
John Searle Ragland Phillips (1850-1919) and the Growth of Journalism – Part 2
This week we welcome back guest author, retired librarian Lucy M. Evans, who enjoys delving into the obscure Victorian world of northern librarians and learned societies. She has previously written about the longevity guru Maurice Ernest, Andrea Crestadoro, a Chief Librarian in Manchester (copy available at LCL), and is currently finishing a biography of his…
Ghost Stories and Weird Experiences (Part 2)
Halloween is officially here so today we continue with some more gruesome tales from the spooky scrapbook compiled by Edwin Hick. As mentioned in Part 1, this scrapbook is officially called ‘Ghost Stories and Weird Experiences, Life after Death etc.’ and is full of newspaper cuttings from the local newspapers detailing weird and wonderful stories…
Black History Month: Leeds United’s first Black footballer
This week we welcome guest author Pete Slater. Pete is one of a small team of volunteers working on a project based on football fandom. He traced the following story during his research using our local newspaper archive, as part of that project work. We publish this piece as part of Black History Month. For…
350 years of worship and rebellion: A timeline of the history of Mill Hill
This week we welcome Leeds Beckett University student Emma Hays, who reports on a recent local history project based on resources in our Local and Family History department…The launch of the accompanying resource is at 1.30pm on October 31 at the Mill Hill Chapel (next to City Square). Mill Hill Chapel was founded in 1674…
Ghost Stories and Weird Experiences (Part 1)
As we creep ever nearer to Halloween we thought it only right to regale you with a few spooky tales from a certain scrapbook in our collections. Known colloquially by staff as the ‘ghost scrapbook’ and more officially as ‘Ghost Stories and Weird Experiences, Life after Death etc.’, it forms Volume 37 of the Edwin…
John Searle Ragland Phillips (1850-1919) and the Growth of Journalism – Part 1
This week we welcome guest author, retired librarian Lucy M. Evans, who enjoys delving into the obscure Victorian world of northern librarians and learned societies. She has previously written about the longevity guru Maurice Ernest, Andrea Crestadoro, a Chief Librarian in Manchester (copy available at LCL), and is currently finishing a biography of his friend…
Searching for Black History in the Leodis Archive
We mark Black History Month 2024 by welcoming back regular guest author Danny Friar, who has unearthed some fascinating examples of Black History in Leeds in a important piece of research… Searching for local Black history can often be challenging. There’s no easy way to do it. I find a snippet here and a snippet…
The Secret Library | Leeds Libraries Heritage Blog 