Leeds University Library Galleries

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Highlights from Cultural Collections & Galleries @universityofleeds.bsky.social

Free and open to all. Visit us at The Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery, Treasures of the Brotherton, and Brotherton Research Centre.

bit.ly/LULGWebsite

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As the first woman to become both a professor and Head of School at the University of Leeds, it is important that her legacy is not lost! Come along to our lunchtime drop-in and explore specimen slides, books, sketches and groundbreaking electron microscope images from our Irene Manton Archive!

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You may know of the Irene Manton building on the University of Leeds Campus, but who was Irene Manton? Manton was a pioneering botanist and electron microscopist. She spent much of her career at Leeds, where she worked as Professor of Botany and carried out influential research on ferns and algae.

A photo of the grey Irene Manton Building shot through the green leaves of small trees.A photo of printed out black and white microscope images laid out messily. Semi-opaque black text boxes read: 'Manton pioneered the use of the electron microscope!', 'Her archive is held by Cultural Collections and reflects her wide-ranging research interests, networks, and approaches to scientific examination', 'She owned a significant collection of modern art, which she was known to use in teaching her students. Much of this art was hung in Botany House, alongside some of her own micrograph images', 'Cultural Collections hold thousands of photographs, glass slides and negatives within the archive which provide a great insight into the way she worked and how she made some of her amazing discoveries!' and 'The Biological Sciences building is named in Manton’s honour!'
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📷️ : Robert Hawthorn Kitson, ‘Banyan Trees, Madura’, n.d. Victoria Art Gallery, BATVG : P : 1939.21. 📷️ : Robert Hawthorn Kitson, Corte della Fontana, Casa Cuseni, n.d. Gift of Daphne Phelps, 2001, LEEUA 2001.113.

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After Kitson fled England to escape homosexual persecution, he moved to Sicily. It is there that his home, Casa Cuseni, became a safe space for other LGBTQ+ people to celebrate queer joy as part of a community.

@lucymoore.bsky.socialReposted by @lulgalleries.bsky.social

My colleagues made a podcast & The Guardian gave it their seal of approval & it's actually A Very Good Listen if you like Yorkshire, poetry, documentaries, Good History, speakers who aren't just men, and of course the intersections of collections and culture
glovesoffleeds.podbean.com

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Happy 550th birthday to William Caxton's printing press!

To celebrate the anniversary, we made a video all about our copy of Caxton's Cordiale (and its dragons! 🐲)

You can watch it, alongside a series of videos from our library pals around the world, over on the @bibsoc.bsky.social YouTube channel

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By paying attention to both what is present and what is absent, Maker Not Recorded encourages a closer examination of museum objects, asking us to consider who is not represented in collections, and how these absences shape our understanding of culture and history.

Open pages of a zine with the head of a man and a red circle on the left page and a blue right page overlaid on a photograph of a sculpture of a woman reading. Blue and white text reads "By paying attention to both what is present and what is absent, Maker Not Recorded encourages a closer examination of museum objects, asking us to consider who is not represented in collections, and how these absences shape our understanding of culture and history."
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There is however a tension between being represented and being documented. Documentation can provide security and recognition, but it can also become a tool of surveillance and control. The importance of documentation becomes particularly visible when records are missing.

Blue and white text over a photograph of people in a museum reads "There is however a tension between being represented and being documented. Documentation can provide security and recognition, but it can also become a tool of surveillance and control. The importance of documentation becomes particularly visible when records are missing."Open pages of a zine with a picture of a man's head overlaid on photographs of a statue without a head and the bust of a man on a plinth.
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In contrast, the title Maker Not Recorded references a phrase used in the exhibition labelling where it is not known who created the work. In borrowing this phrase, we reiterate the fact that representation isn’t a passive fact, but an active choice.

Blue and white text over a photograph of glass museum cases filled with small green statues reads "In contrast, the title Maker Not Recorded references a phrase used in the exhibition labelling where it is not known who created the work. In borrowing this phrase, we reiterate the fact that representation isn’t a passive fact, but an active choice."Open pages of a zine, the left page featuring a diagram of a head on a blue background and the right page a medical instrument on a white background, overlaid on a photograph of people in a museum.
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Many of the objects in the exhibition are linked to named individuals. We know who is represented, who donated the work, when it entered the collection, or why it was acquired. They tell stories about whose identities and achievements have been considered important enough to preserve.

Open pages of a zine, the left page blue and the right page white, with a blue stature of a woman's head and a red circle in the centre, overlaid on a photograph of a bronze sculpture of a woman's head.Blue and white text over a photograph of a sculpture of a man's head in a museum, reads "Many of the objects in the exhibition are linked to named individuals. We know who is represented, who donated the work, when it entered the collection, or why it was acquired. They tell stories about whose identities and achievements have been considered important enough to preserve."
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