The British Library of Economics and Political Science opened at LSE in 1896. Here we explore the LSE Library: its history and its collections.
GallerySquare Haunting – a spotlight on Eileen Power
Between the wars, London’s Mecklenburgh Square was home to five prominent women including LSE economic historian Eileen Power. Square Haunting author Francesca Wade spoke at an LSE Library event on 29 September 2020.
Focusing on Eileen Power, Francesca Wade’s talk was based on her book Square Haunting. Francesca Wade is now Associate Editor of The White Review. Her writing has appeared in […]
GalleryThe beginnings of Women’s Liberation in Britain
On the 50th anniversary of the Women’s Liberation Movement in the UK Gilllian Murphy, Curator for Equality, Rights and Citizenship at LSE Library, looks at the emergence of a women’s movement during the late 1960s and early 1970s using the archives of the Women’s Library.
Wives Demand Trawler Safety Code
Following the death of 40 fishermen at sea in January 1968, Lilian Bilocca, […]
GalleryIn the archives – Eduard Rosenbaum: émigré and librarian
Graham Camfield, former LSE Librarian and historian, writes about Eduard Rosenbaum, Acquisitions Librarian in the LSE Library, who arrived at LSE from Nazi Germany, with the support of the Academic Assistance Council to leave Nazi Germany.
In July 1935 the new Assistant Librarian in charge of library acquisitions was introduced to LSE colleagues as “an economist of standing and a […]
GalleryVotes for Women – a history on film
This International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month, watch a history of the women’s suffrage campaign and its legacy at LSE.
The Women’s Library and archives at LSE hold the story of the campaign for women’s suffrage, which resulted in the first votes for women. Watch this film to find out what happened, how we are commemorating their work on campus […]
GalleryOn Hugh Dalton’s archives and making up with the past
LSE Library hold the archives of alumnus and former government minister, Hugh Dalton. Student Alma Simba shares her experiences using Hugh’s diaries for research, on the centenary of the end of the war he was writing about. From opening and interpreting the archives to visiting the Imperial War Museum’s centenary exhibition, Alma writes about studying history and the fluidity of interpretation: making up with the […]
GalleryThe Mud March and the meeting at Exeter Hall
On 9 February 1907, in the rain, the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies held the first large-scale women’s procession through London. The finishing point was Exeter Hall on the Strand, now the site of the Strand Palace Hotel. LSE Curator Gillian Murphy introduces the LSE archive material on the “mud march”, and the speech given at Exeter Hall by Jewish […]
GalleryIn the LSE Library archives – “I feel guilty for not trying to escape from all of my prison sentences”
The launch of a new LSE Library exhibition “Give Peace a Chance” shines a spotlight on some of the key archive collections held at LSE Library that document the lives and activities of peace campaigners and organisations in the 20th century. Curator Daniel Payne explores the archives of the incredible peace activist and civil rights campaigner Pat Arrowsmith.
Poet, artist, […]
GalleryWhy the Pankhurst name is synonymous with Ethiopia as well as the suffragette movement
LSE’s Behailu Shiferaw Mihirete tells the story of Sylvia Pankhurst, daughter of prominent suffragette Emmeline, who became a relentless advocate for Ethiopia during the Fascist Italian invasion of 1936 to 1941.
The year 2018 marks the centenary of the year when some women (who met the age (>30 years old) and property criteria or who were university educated) succeeded in […]
GallerySuffragettes at dinner – from gaol to the Savoy Hotel
“Suffragettes at dinner – from gaol to the Savoy Hotel” was the headline from the Daily Mail about the banquet hosted by Millicent Garrett Fawcett held in the lavish surroundings of the Savoy Hotel for released suffragette prisoners on 11 December 1906. Curator Gillian Murphy outlines the LSE archives about this event.
In the Women’s Library collection is Millicent Garrett Fawcett’s […]
GalleryBook Extract: ‘Preserving Their Own Memory: Constitutional Suffragism and the Fawcett Society’ from Remembering Women’s Activism by Sharon Crozier De-Rosa and Vera Mackie
2018 marks the centenary of partial suffrage in Britain, when property-owning women over the age of 30 won the right to vote in parliamentary elections in the UK. To commemorate the historical link between LSE and the campaign for women’s suffrage, on 23 November 2018 the Towers at Clement’s Inn on LSE campus were renamed Pankhurst House, Fawcett House and […]