Dr Michelle Johansen
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historitage.bsky.social
Dr Michelle Johansen
@historitage.bsky.social
1.8K followers 1K following 240 posts
Social historian, researching &
writing about British librarians & #PubLibs in the long nineteenth century. Learning & Outreach Manager at the Society of Antiquaries, London.
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historitage.bsky.social
In the 1870s, George Gissing & his brother William were furious at the ‘scandalous condition’ of #PubLibs in England, contrasting progress unfavourably with the USA - where every town had ‘its excellent Free Library’. From Letters of George Gissing to Members of his Family (1927). 💙📚
A white man in a suit sits at a writing desk. He has thick, wavy hair swept back from his face. One hand is held up to his chin. The other holds a pen with which he writes on a sheet of paper. There are books in a pile beside and in front of him. A caption reads: George Gissing, May 1901.
November 16, 2025 at 2:32 PM
historitage.bsky.social
CLOSED. My second failed attempt to visit the Morrab Library in Penzance last month. Founded in the early 19C, the library is one of only around 60 independent libraries still in existence in the UK (& the only one in the whole of Cornwall). I did admire this cute sign on the front door though.
Close-up photo of painted red door showing a weathered wooden sign stating CLOSED in faded black letters on a white background.
November 11, 2025 at 10:19 AM
historitage.bsky.social
1850. The Public Libraries Act means councils in England & Wales can now spend local taxes on libraries. Some London regions are VERY slow to adopt the act. St Pancras rate-payers object to “wasting” money on “showy luxuries”. Fifty years pass before a free library opens in the district #PubLibs 💙📚
A typed hand bill, printed c.1900. Under the title “FREE PUBLIC LIBRARIES” SCHEME IN ST PANCRAS, opponents of free libraries in this central London region set out four reasons for their opposition.
October 25, 2025 at 12:24 PM
historitage.bsky.social
I’ve been discovering David Ackles via Mark Brend’s beautifully-written biography. Down River (2025) details the curious recording career of a relatively unknown US singer songwriter in the late 60s & early 70s. Elton John was a fan. Sadly, no #PubLibs are featured in the biog. Excellent otherwise.
A book cover shows a man in profile. He is white with curly dark hair and his eyes appear closed. Is he singing or performing?
October 20, 2025 at 8:03 AM
historitage.bsky.social
A line of Yale University librarians carry rare 18C volumes from the old library to the brand new Sterling Memorial Library building in July 1930. I love the way library staff turned this humdrum task into a celebratory piece of street theatre!! #WeekLforLines #AlphabetChallenge 💙📚
A line of more than a dozen librarians carrying books across a street towards the entrance of a gothic stone structure. A couple of passers by look on. The black & white photo is from the collections at the Yale University Library.
September 21, 2025 at 1:02 PM
historitage.bsky.social
From the 1930s, Britain’s #PubLibs were increasingly staffed by female librarians - usually overseen by a male manager. This fab photo (from the archives at Havering Libraries) shows a group of smartly-dressed assistants shelving books at the shiny new Upminster Library building in Essex c.1963 💙📚
A black & white photo shows 6 white women, young-looking, squeezed into a narrow bay or corridor in a library. Three of the group are holding armfuls of hardback books; the remaining three appear to be replacing volumes on a stack of shelves on the left of the photo. All are looking directly at the photographer and appear cheerful.
September 14, 2025 at 9:36 AM
historitage.bsky.social
Railway reads. Found near the train track not far from Lincoln station 💙📚
A bright blue shelving unit holding a few paperbacks. One half of the unit is covered with a tatty piece of corrugated plastic. A hand-made sign pinned to to top of the unit says ‘Railway reads’.
September 7, 2025 at 2:04 PM
historitage.bsky.social
The American Women’s Club was a philanthropic organisation set up in London in 1898. Members incl. the wives of Herbert Hoover & Gordon Selfridge. In 1916, a clubroom opened in Mayfair complete with Italian-style gardens, a ballroom with a huge pipe organ (v fashionable at this time) & a library 💙📚
A black and white postcard showing a small, wood-panelled library with books along one wall. There are three or four armchairs arranged around the room and a rectangle table displaying journals and magazines. The postcard dates from around 1920.
August 31, 2025 at 10:22 AM
historitage.bsky.social
In 1969, ‘shapely’ library assistant Deborah Kerr failed to bring the Miss Book World title home to Upminster Library in Essex. Never mind. Losing the contest gave Deborah more time to focus on her studies. #PubLibs💙📚
📷 Havering Express, 19 March 1969, from Havering Libraries - Local Studies
A cutting of a newspaper article alongside a photo of a smiling young woman. The title of the article is ‘Deborah shelves title bid’.
July 26, 2025 at 3:48 PM
historitage.bsky.social
The female gaze
Herbert Putnam, c.1900
Librarian of Congress (1899-1939)
💙📚
A well-dressed man stands before a glazed bookshelf. He holds a large volume, open, in his right hand. His left hand turns a page. He looks directly to the camera.
July 20, 2025 at 2:00 PM
historitage.bsky.social
Meet John Mullins, the mildly terrifying chief librarian of Birmingham Free Library from 1858 to 1898. Mullins was famous for his Daily Routine Book. The book listed 100 checks the library staff were expected to complete each morning before opening the reference room doors to the public #PubLibs 💙📚
A nineteenth-century drawing of a bearded, bespectacled man seated at a desk, flicking through the pages of a slim volume. This is John Mullins in his library office. The image is taken from from Thomas Kelly ‘Books for the People’ (1977).
July 13, 2025 at 3:22 PM
historitage.bsky.social
It’s 1900. A lavishly-illustrated history of Fulham is published. John Henry Quinn (librarian in neighbouring Chelsea) only orders one copy for readers since ‘interest [among Chelsea people in Fulham is] so little’. Anyway, here’s the famous cork tree planted by Bishop Compton, on p.137
#PubLibs 💙📚
A 19C black & white drawing of a leafy cork tree standing in front of a brick or stone wall. The tree leans noticeably to the right. From Charles William Feret ‘Fulham Old and New’ (1900).
June 21, 2025 at 10:24 AM
historitage.bsky.social
The brand new Peckham library on Peckham Road c.1904. Leonard Hurdon was the sub-librarian. His hours were 10.30am to 9pm with a 2-hour break for lunch, which he took in his lodgings (a short walk from the library) to save money. At £90, his salary was too low to support a wife & family #PubLibs 💙📚
A south London high street around 1904. There are two tall trees on either side of the brand new Peckham Free Library building, a two-storey affair with pillars at the entrance to add grandeur & a three-storey decorative turret.
June 16, 2025 at 9:21 PM
historitage.bsky.social
Here’s the adorable reading room at the Kingsley Hotel in London c.1912. The Kingsley was a temperance hotel, situated round the corner from the British Museum. A guest from Glasgow described it as: “The most satisfactory Hotel I have ever visited in London during 25 years.” 💙📚
A room with a book case against one wall and a table in the middle of the space. There are upright chairs and easy chairs arranged around the room.
June 13, 2025 at 7:22 AM
historitage.bsky.social
Kettering Library, Northants, c.1908. Inside, the FIRST example of radial shelving in a British public library!! Unusually, Kettering employed a female manager. In 1915, Kate Pierce was the first woman elected to the Library Association Council. Pierce ran Kettering Library for 40 years #PubLibs 💙📚
A red brick, two-storey building on an empty street. A church spire can be seen behind the building.
June 1, 2025 at 7:00 PM
historitage.bsky.social
Here’s the Shoreditch Public Library in East London. It’s 1895. The chief librarian William Plant is the self-educated son of a silk twister. Plant lives in a flat ‘over the shop’. Among his regular borrowers are rope makers, metal workers, ivory turners, tie makers, and stone masons. #PubLibs 💙📚
A black & white illustration of a grand-looking building on a main thoroughfare. There is no traffic. A dozen people (respectable looking, all ages & a mix of genders) are milling around outside the building.
May 22, 2025 at 1:26 PM
historitage.bsky.social
In 1929, a huge international conference of librarians took place in Italy. Delegates were treated like celebrities. They were invited EVERYWHERE as special guests - including the Vatican Library, where they enjoyed an audience with the Pope.
#PubLibs 💙📚
📷 Yale University Library
A large group of well-dressed men standing on the steps of a grand building.
May 9, 2025 at 8:19 AM
historitage.bsky.social
In 1881, electric lighting was introduced in the circular reading room at Liverpool public library. Some readers complained of headaches, brought on by the excessive brightness - but staff appreciated the removal of gas lights, which had made the room stuffy & almost unbearably warm.
#PubLibs 💙📚
A black and white photo, taken at Liverpool Public Library in England around 1900. It shows a circular library reading room. On the left, plain wooden tables and upright chairs. There are a few readers seated towards the rear of the room. There are galleried shelves of books behind them, reaching halfway up the walls. Towards the right of the image, at the centre of the room, there is a tall plinth with a wooden surround. On top of the plinth, a huge electric light fitting has been concealed in a semi-circular shade that resembles an upturned umbrella. Liverpool is the first municipal library in Britain to install electric lighting. Peter Cowell Liverpool Public Libraries (1903)
May 3, 2025 at 3:56 PM
historitage.bsky.social
I've spent today 'at' the 1893 American Library Association conference in Chicago. Hilarious that Peter Cowell of Liverpool mentions the weather before starting his paper. So British! His comments on female delegates are spot-on though - the UK lagged behind the US in recruiting 'the fairer sex'. 💙📚
Three paragraphs from a printed report of part of the proceedings at the 1893 ALA conference. The paragraphs here cover the speaker's preamble ahead of delivering a paper on Lectures, Museums, and Art Galleries.
April 12, 2025 at 4:13 PM
historitage.bsky.social
Come with clean hands and behave quietly. OR ELSE. Instructions for young visitors to the children’s corner in one of Camden’s branch libraries c.1930.
#PubLibs
#WeekNForNoise
#AlphabetChallenge
💙📚
📸 Camden Local Studies Library & Archive
A dark-haired white woman sits writing notes behind a three-quarter screen made of panes of frosted glass in a wooden frame. Behind the woman are shelves of books. A sign on the pane above the woman gives instructions on appropriate behaviours for young library visitors.
April 5, 2025 at 12:35 PM
historitage.bsky.social
Introducing Gertrude Moakley, 20C librarian at the New York Public Library - and expert in the history of tarot cards. Moakley makes a brief but eye-catching appearance in the ‘Tarot - Origins & Afterlives’ temporary exhibition at the Warburg Institute in London.
A black & white head shot of a young white woman with a 1920s hairstyle. She is wearing a dark dress or jersey with a white lace collar. She holds your gaze. Underneath the photo, there is label text saying this is her yearbook photograph from Barnard College, Columbia University, New York, taken in 1925.
April 2, 2025 at 7:47 PM
historitage.bsky.social
Mary Cordelia Scott (1856-1936). Scott was one of a tiny group of pioneer female library managers in late-Victorian Britain. She was in charge of Doncaster free library from the 1880s until the eve of WW1. She lived in the Yorkshire area her entire life. #WHM #PubLibs 💙📚
A slightly blurry headshot of a middle-aged white woman wearing a high-necked, highly decorated blouse. She is staring directly at the camera. Her eyes hold your gaze. She has curly hair, piled on top of her head. The photo was taken around 1900. It appeared in Alfred Cotgreave’s ‘Views & Memoranda of Public Libraries’ (1901).
March 24, 2025 at 10:19 AM
historitage.bsky.social
It’s the 1930s & librarian Emily Hall is returning a volume to the stacks in the rare books room at Yale University Library 💙📚
#WeekKForKinetic
#AlphabetChallenge
B&W photo shows a middle-aged woman wearing spectacles and a long-sleeved blouse. She is pictured in profile, lifting a bound volume to replace it on a shelf of books.
March 10, 2025 at 8:31 PM
historitage.bsky.social
In Victorian Britain, librarianship was seen as a masculine profession. Kate Lewtas was one of only a handful of women who managed a 19C public library. Lewtas was in charge at Blackpool from 1891 to 1901, when she left the profession to marry. A bittersweet #PubLibs post for #IWD 💙📚
A headshot of a young white woman with an alert gaze and a slightly amused expression. She is wearing a high-necked blouse or dress and a huge hat trimmed with fabric flowers. The photo is taken around 1900 and was printed in Thomas Kelly’s History of Public Libraries.
March 8, 2025 at 8:37 PM
historitage.bsky.social
Bring back the Library Management board game!! A training tool devised in the late 1960s. From the Manchester Library Archive.
#PubLibs
#WeekJForJob
#AlphabetChallenge
💙📚
A B&W photo of a journal cutting with some text describing a board game invented by librarians for training purposes. There is a photo, bottom left, showing a smartly-dressed young white man who seems absorbed in playing the board game.
March 4, 2025 at 9:20 PM