The third of a four-part series exploring the history of the Jewish community in Leeds. See our dedicated page for all entries in this series, plus other articles on related subjects. This part focuses on culture and sport in the community… Perhaps the foremost cultural figure to emerge from the Leeds Jewish community was Jacob…
Tag: theatre
People of Leeds #15: Buffalo Bill’s Wild West
This week, we hear from the Central Library’s Helen Skilbeck, who talks us through a fascinating and very-valuable Playbill. This article is #15 in our People of Leeds series – short biographies of lesser-known contributors to Leeds’ past. Leeds Libraries collection of playbills can be viewed online but one that has not yet been digitised is…
Hidden Nature, Hidden History: Playhouse Gardens
This article forms part of our Heritage Open Day 2020 programme, specifically our Leeds City Centre Hidden Nature, Hidden History heritage trail. Click to see all the points on the trail and to read the accompanying articles… Between the newly built Leeds City College and the Leeds Playhouse extension you will find a triangular shaped one…
The Glory of Goad Maps
In the blog this week, Librarian Helen Skilbeck looks at some beautiful but underused maps in our collection – Goad maps. This piece forms part of our series of articles exploring resources relevant to family history research. In the Local and Family History Library there are hundreds of maps – maps of Leeds, maps of…
Cross-dressing in Yorkshire
This week we welcome guest writer Lauren Wells, Post-Graduate Researcher at the University of Leeds, who explores the history and meaning(s) of cross-dressing in Yorkshire… My research examines men who cross-dressed in Yorkshire from the end of the nineteenth century until the eve of the Second World War. When I first conceptualised this project, I…
The Monopoly Man in Leeds: Waddington Plc
University of Huddersfield history student and library volunteer Haaris Mahmood continues his series of articles for The Secret Library, by looking back over the achievements of the Waddington company in the first-half of the 20th-century… In recent years the evolution of gaming has proved to be revolutionary with many new platforms being established such as video games and virtual…
Xin Nian Kuai Le!
As we welcome in the Year of the Dog, librarian Ross Horsley looks back over some of the ways Leeds Libraries has worked with the city’s Chinese community over the past twelve months, exploring local history in what was the Year of the Rooster. The Leeds Is My Home project is a collaboration between Leeds…
Tales from Leeds Pantomimes
This week on the Secret Library, local history Librarian, Antony Ramm, brings you three of his favourite stories from Leeds’ rich pantomime tradition. Oh yes he does! In May of 1986, J. Ingle of Otley wrote to the Yorkshire Evening Post to ask how long pantomimes had been taking place in Leeds – and was…
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