Dr Michelle Johansen
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historitage.bsky.social
Dr Michelle Johansen
@historitage.bsky.social
Social historian, researching &
writing about British librarians & #PubLibs in the long nineteenth century. Learning & Outreach Manager at the Society of Antiquaries, London.
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). 💙📚
November 16, 2025 at 2:32 PM
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.
November 11, 2025 at 10:19 AM
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 💙📚
October 25, 2025 at 12:24 PM
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.
October 20, 2025 at 8:03 AM
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 💙📚
September 21, 2025 at 1:02 PM
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 💙📚
September 14, 2025 at 9:36 AM
Railway reads. Found near the train track not far from Lincoln station 💙📚
September 7, 2025 at 2:04 PM
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 💙📚
August 31, 2025 at 10:22 AM
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
July 26, 2025 at 3:48 PM
The female gaze
Herbert Putnam, c.1900
Librarian of Congress (1899-1939)
💙📚
July 20, 2025 at 2:00 PM
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 💙📚
July 13, 2025 at 3:22 PM
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 💙📚
June 21, 2025 at 10:24 AM
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 💙📚
June 16, 2025 at 9:21 PM
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.” 💙📚
June 13, 2025 at 7:22 AM
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 💙📚
June 1, 2025 at 7:00 PM
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 💙📚
May 22, 2025 at 1:26 PM
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
May 9, 2025 at 8:19 AM
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 💙📚
May 3, 2025 at 3:56 PM
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'. 💙📚
April 12, 2025 at 4:13 PM
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
April 5, 2025 at 12:35 PM
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.
April 2, 2025 at 7:47 PM
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 💙📚
March 24, 2025 at 10:19 AM
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
March 10, 2025 at 8:31 PM
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 💙📚
March 8, 2025 at 8:37 PM
Bring back the Library Management board game!! A training tool devised in the late 1960s. From the Manchester Library Archive.
#PubLibs
#WeekJForJob
#AlphabetChallenge
💙📚
March 4, 2025 at 9:20 PM