Number #8 in an occasional series, this week we hear from Librarian Antony Ramm about a criminally little-known autobiography by a notorious member of the French underworld… We’ve praised the Public Domain Review website before on the Secret Library Leeds blog – if you’re not already a reader, we strongly recommend you sign up to... Read More ..read more

Library and Digital Assistant Jan Pindar has been researching the history of Horsforth in our Central Library collections. This week on the Secret Library we hear some of Jan’s highlights from that work, as well as news of a research guide to aid other researchers into the Horsforth area, part of a series of guides... Read More ..read more

This week we welcome back Danny Friar, one of our most popular guest authors, who offers a sequel to his important previous work looking at hidden, underwritten and marginalised histories in Georgian Yorkshire… It has been around a year since I last contributed as a guest author on the Secret Library Leeds blog so I... Read More ..read more

This week we hear from Library and Digital Assistant Kirsty Lodge, on an intriguing discovery that wasn’t a discovery, but which turned out to be another discovery entirely – leading to some inspired cross-departmental working… When departments collide! Sometimes the most interesting discoveries, come about because of chance, coincidence, or serendipity. When the Music department... Read More ..read more

This week we hear from Becky Bavill, Library and Digital Assistant, who brings us a quick, but perplexing and intriguing, look at the mystery of a Leeds author of romantic fiction… You can hear much more about the broader history of romantic fiction in an upcoming talk, taking place at the Central Library on the... Read More ..read more

This week, to celebrate International Women’s Day, Library and Digital Assistant Alexandra Brummitt, looks at the works and life of the first British feminist, Mary Wollstonecraft. Looking at Wollstonecraft’s most famous work, she discusses how this work influenced the suffrage movement and generations of feminists. When thinking of the suffrage movement at the turn of... Read More ..read more

This week we welcome Library and Digital Assistant Heather Edwards, who has written a fascinating article on a pioneer of medical history for LGBT+ History Month, told using books in the collections at our Central Library. To say that medical history and the LGBT+ community have a long, harmonious, and uncomplicated relationship would be a... Read More ..read more

This week, as part of our 10th birthday celebrations, we hear from Tony Scaife, regular guest contributor to the blog, who offers his thoughts about the last decade of research and writing for the Secret Library… As just one of many guest contributors it is gratifying to be asked to write a post for the... Read More ..read more

Over the past ten years the Secret Library Leeds blog has seen a host of guest authors writing about their projects, studies or interests. Here we look back at just a few of them. Guest authors come about in a variety of ways. Sometimes a researcher will approach Leeds Libraries with a query and in... Read More ..read more

This week Librarian Antony Ramm looks back on a special anniversary for the Secret Library blog… “I go into my library and all history unrolls before me.” Alexander Smith The Secret Library Leeds officially launched on Friday February 7 2014 – exactly ten years ago today (to the minute: 3.29pm). Ten years! A full decade,... Read More ..read more