On World Aids Day, 1st December 2018, we hosted an event to think about remembrance of those affected by the disease. We were delighted to welcome Professor Matt Cook of Birkbeck, University of London, and Ross Horsley, of the West Yorkshire Queer Stories project, to speak about their research. Both reflected on the...
‘Your generosity can change lives’, promises the Red Cross, as its website suggests the reader ‘Leave a gift in your will’. Up until last week, I hadn’t realised how important legacy giving was to charities. Cancer Research UK, for example, relies on legacies for about a third of its income....
A guest blog from Patrick Bourne, with thanks to the Leeds Jewish Representative Council, the United Hebrew Congregation, Leeds and the Beth Hamidrash Hagadol Synagogue for providing information Along with the Irish, the largest migrant community in early twentieth century Leeds were Jews, many of whom had fled persecution in...
Guest post by Katie McClymont, University of the West of England and Co-Investigator on the Deathscapes and Diversity project Many of my colleagues were either rather taken aback, or quietly amused, when I told them I was researching cemeteries and planning. The reaction seems to stem from a sense that...
A guest blog by David Selway (Cardiff University) David gave a talk on his research as part of the events programme associated with our ‘Remembrance’ exhibition at Abbey House Museum. Listen to the talk here and read more about his research below. In the winter of 2015, a week before Christmas,...
A guest post from Satwant Rait, with thanks to the Sikh Elders Service for their contributions to discussions on Sikh remembrance There is no Sikh religious dictate in terms dressing up, but there is a Punjabi cultural tradition of wearing a suit and in Sikh tradition the mourning colour is white. Almost...
A guest blog from Amanda Reed My name’s Amanda Reed – my maiden name is Cunningham. I was born in 1964 in the Armley area of Leeds and I’m an English Gypsy. I’ve researched my family tree back to the 1700s. I’ve collected objects, photographs and documents relating to my family...
Our exhibition Remembrance will open at Abbey House Museum on Saturday 3 March. The exhibition includes objects which have been used to remember loved ones since the Victorian period and up to the present day. Some of these were mass produced, or reflect widespread mourning rituals and practices. But people have also...
A guest blog from Janet Coles The silver vesta case belonged to my maternal grandmother, Emily Maria Gaskin, who was born in London in 1884 and died in York in 1956. Even sixty years later it reminds me of the happy times we spent together. Although I was only seven when she died, it clearly brings back the image I have of her: a tall, quiet, very elegant woman....
A Guest Blog from Marie Songhurst This writing case belonged to my mother – Ethel Mary Tee (Mayhew). I believe the writing case was a birthday or Christmas Present given to her during the 1930s. Mum was born in Wisbech in Cambridgeshire the day before Armistice was declared in 1918,...
Photograph: Edwin Glover Bingham with the choir at St Augustine’s Wrangthorn A guest blog from Maureen Kershaw Born in 1948 I don’t have memories of family passing away until those from the 1960s onwards. However this gentleman, my great uncle, is someone I think of with affection and I would...
Laura King, University of Leeds What objects do you hold on to because they remind you of someone you’ve lost? Where do those memories of the deceased live? What kind of things do we do to keep their memories alive? Last week saw the annual Mexican Día de los Muertos,...
A guest blog from Laura Loyola-Hernández In the last two decades, Halloween marketing around the globe has appropriated Día de los muertos (Day of the Dead). Nowadays, it is very common to find in stores across the UK some type of imagery or costume associated with Día de los muertos. While...
Arthur Louis Aaron was an RAF pilot in Bomber Command during the Second World War. He was killed in action after a raid on Turin on 12 August 1943 and was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross: the only Leeds serviceman to be awarded the Victoria Cross during the conflict. Aaron’s...
Frederic Forster’s Mourning Warehouse, Lower Briggate, Leeds, founded 1849. Photo c. 1870-1890, possibly taken by J Wormald. © Leeds Museums and Galleries. Guest blog from Partick Bourne, Assistant Community Curator at Abbey House Museum and Kirkstall Abbey, Leeds I have an interest in the material culture around death and dying, and...
Leeds Bereavement Forum Annual Conference 2017 In June the project supported and participated in a fantastic event organised by Leeds Bereavement Forum, which brought together academic and artistic projects with health practitioners to develop some really interesting and productive conversations about death and dying. The key question of the day was whether talking about death in the...