Programme

10.00am
Brotherton Library opens

10.15 to 10.30am
Registration in Special Collections

10.30am
Welcome and introduction to the workshop
Professor Regina Lee Blaszczyk

10.45am
Cotton and the Older Fibres: Innovation and Competition in the Industrial Revolution
Dr Barbara Hahn will discuss some of the traditional textile industries of Yorkshire and explore why the cotton industry of Lancashire has received so much more publicity than Yorkshire’s textile industry in the history of the Industrial Revolution.

11.15am
Opportunity to view exhibition
The papers of Benjamin Gott and John Marshall, kept in Special Collections at the Brotherton Library, show that Leeds industry pursued new machines and methods of production in their textile factories. They both experimented actively to make their fibres competitive even while cotton stole the glory at the time.

11.30am
Wool Central: Yorkshire College in Victorian Times
Professor Regina Lee Blaszczyk will speak about the woollen industry of Yorkshire with reference to the founding of the Yorkshire College of Science (precursor to the University of Leeds) as a weaving school.

12.00pm
Final remarks/short discussion

12.15pm
Lunch
With opportunity to network with delegates and view exhibition

1.00pm
Special Collections closes

1.00pm
Opportunity to visit Stanley and Audrey Burton Gallery in the Parkinson Court

1.15pm
Optional campus tour (weather permitting)

 

About the speakers

Professor Regina Lee Blaszczyk is Professor of Business History and Leadership Chair in the History of Business and Society in the School of History at the University of Leeds. Regina has published eight books on the history of design and innovation. Her talk is based on research for the Moon Heritage Project, a book about Abraham Moon and Sons (a tweed mill still operating in Leeds).

Dr Barbara Hahn is Marie Curie International Incoming Fellow to the School of History at the University of Leeds for ‘Rethinking Textiles’, a research project which makes use of the approaches and methods of the history of technology to produce new interpretations of the Industrial Revolution.

 

Please note this workshop is now fully booked.