This week we hear from Library and Digital Assistant Ruairí Lewis who talks us through the fascinating history of the Leeds Arts Club through library stock and collections… Among our local history collections are a few volumes on the history of the Leeds Arts Club, and its fascinating founder, Alfred Orage. Very little has been…
Tag: Mary Gawthorpe
Mary Gawthorpe, Alice Stone Blackwell and Florence Pethick Lawrence: Three Inspirational Women from the Women’s Suffrage Movement
Todays blog post comes from MA students Sophia Lambert, and Rebecca Illidge who are volunteering with Leeds Libraries to index the Gawthorpe Papers. The Mary Gawthorpe Papers are an incredibly valuable and rich resource and are available to view on microfilm at the Leeds Central Library. Mary Eleanor Gawthorpe was born in Woodhouse, Leeds, on…
Glimpses of Mary Gawthorpe
As International Women’s Day approaches, we look at some inspirational women of Leeds, as chosen by Local and Family History staff. Here librarian, Helen Skilbeck, reveals her admiration of a local suffragist. A personal favourite of mine is Mary Gawthorpe (1881-1973) who was a teacher, suffragist, suffragette, organiser and public speaker for the WSPU (Women’s…
The Vote Before the Vote
This week, local author Chris Nickson and curator of 2018 exhibition The Vote Before the Vote, tells us more about some important, but relatively unknown women of Leeds. Right at the start of the era, in 1832, Mary Smith of Stanmore, Yorkshire, which is believed to be a property very close to today’s Cottage Road…
International Women’s Day and Suffrage in Leeds
In celebration of International Women’s Day and the anniversary of a Leeds suffragette and socialist we are highlighting the Mary Gawthorpe collection and other Leeds Library Collections documenting women’s suffrage in Leeds. Born January 12th, 1881 in the Woodhouse area of Leeds, Mary Gawthorpe was the middle of 5 children to John and Anne, a…
The Secret Library | Leeds Libraries Heritage Blog 