by Antony Ramm, Local and Family History, Central Library While researching upcoming events on the life and career of the 18th-century Leeds Schoolmaster and Antiquarian, Thomas Wilson, we were directed by the ‘manuscripts’ section of the card catalogue in our Local and Family History department toward a very-intriguing collection of letters: The particular interest this…
Tag: Antony Ramm
A Snapshot of Leeds on June 3, 1917
by Antony Ramm, Local and Family History, Central Library Tomorrow will mark a century since a nationally significant, but oddly little-known, event in the history of Leeds: the 1917 Peace Convention at the Coliseum. This “saw 3,500 people from across Britain gather at the Leeds Coliseum (now the O2 Academy) in solidarity with the February…
New Addition to our Collections: Samuel Marsden
by Antony Ramm, Local and Family History, Central Library The broad outline of Samuel Marsden‘s life and works are well-known: born Farsley, 1764, Samuel emigrated to the Australian colonies in 1793 after accepting an appointment as assistant to the Chaplain of New South Wales. There he took up residence at Parramatta, where he had charge…
Reading Around the Histories of Leeds
by Antony Ramm, Local and Family History, Central Library “In a nutshell, historiography is the history of history” – and because everything has a history (both objectively and subjectively), everything also has a history of those histories: that is, a historiography. Leeds is no different. In fact, in some ways, Leeds is more blessed than many other…
“We Smile”: A Curious Donation of Photographs
by Antony Ramm, Local and Family History, Central Library We recently received a new addition to our collections: a photograph album featuring images of holidays in the North of England during 1920 and 1921. The album was donated to us in the hope we could identify the people depicted in the photos and then –…
Speed-dating our Library Treasures II: Small Books and Big Ideas
by Antony Ramm, Local and Family History, Central Library You may recall that, during our 2016 Library Fest programme, we trialled a new event: Speed-date our Library Treasures. Put simply, this was an opportunity for the public to engage with a wide range of some of our most interesting and unique stock items, all curated by…
Who Led Leeds? Case Study #1: Maud Dightam
by Antony Ramm, Local and Family History, Central Library This article also forms #3 in our occasional People of Leeds series – a celebration of lesser-known contributors to the Leeds story. Many readers will be familiar with the name and the achievements of Alice Bacon, the first woman elected as an MP in Leeds. And…
Hands-On Urban History #1: Little Woodhouse
by Antony Ramm, Local and Family History, Central Library Last Saturday, as part of our 2017 Library Fest programme, we welcomed a group of budding urban historians and explorers to the Central Library, for a workshop where they would help staff from the Local and Family History department research and investigate a fascinating item that had…
The Secret Library | Leeds Libraries Heritage Blog 