Archives

Anna welcomes Lisa and myself to the Leeds Library tour. Melissa is an international postgraduate student at Leeds Beckett University. The tour has been arranged to provide insight into the research that is undertaken at the library. Anna has clearly spent ages preparing for our visit, by unearthing some of the treasures in the library collection. Anna opens a box and removes a cream bound book with metallic clasps then hands it to us. As Melissa holds the book in her hand, Anna tells her it is over six hundred years old. Other items from the library archive are shown to us including records dating back to when the library was first founded. A particular highlight for Melissa and I was a folio edition book dating from the eighteenth century which had incredibly detailed and colourful ink illustrations of birds and insects.

Anna gets out a box containing diary sized books which recorded the borrowing history of members. Anna explained that in the past members might send their family members, staff or governesses to collect books on their behalf. Therefore, it was not so easy to trace the exact reading habits of those members. Even so, the books provide a valuable archival resource.

When Melissa and I go in to the basement, Anna shows us newspapers dating back to the 1880s. We discussed the importance of typesetting work for these newspapers and admired the detailed illustrations of Paris fashions showing ladies in ringlets wearing the latest frocks of the day.

Have you used the archives at the library, if so what did you find? What sort of research were you doing?