What’s on December! Free events and activities in the Children’s and Music Library 📚🎄

January 2026 reading campaign: Matt Haig, The Life Impossible, and Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights. Install #BorrowBox and use your library membership to download your free e-book or audio book. @LibraryofBham @BorrowBox

#BirminghamLibrary today’s blog is on additions we’ve made to our printed collections such as the Birmingham and Local Studies, Black & South Asian Histories, Genealogy and Topography in 2025 - https://t.co/pLaBwpLim3 Here’s to more in 2026 @LibraryofBham

Today’s #Panoramic is this engraving of #Birmingham by Storer from an original drawing by Turner. Published 1795 by Walker. Included in the third edition of William Hutton’s History of Birmingham, 1795. Ref: SC 14 @LibraryofBham

#SundayShowcase is Broken Threads by Mishal Husain - a family history in the midst of British rule in South Asia, the subsequent emergence of independence and reverberations still felt today. Ref - 954.910409 Black & South Asian History Collection @LibraryofBham @mishalhusain

#CityOf1000Trades today is this advertisement design for H.P. Pope - a firm of printers who at the time were based on Suffolk Street. They had also occupied premises on New Street. Ref - L 08.2 Periodicals C/4 (512688) @LibraryofBham

#PhotoFriday today is this 1841 daguerreotype of Winson Green House by Elizabeth Stockdale Wilkinson. The house was home to Mr WG Alston, an advocate of photography. This is reputed to be the earliest surviving photograph of Birmingham. Ref – WK/W16/141 @LibraryofBham @Brumpic

#happynewyear to all! We hope you enjoyed our 2025 offerings and here’s to more in 2026. This 1908 seasonal greeting is from George Phillip Lempriére who helped found the Midland Aero Club. Lempriére was interred in Handsworth new cemetery. Ref - MS 1575/3/7/2/1 @LibraryofBham

#birmingham #perrottsfolly standing at 96 feet, was built in 1758 for John Perrott. Many stories explain why the tower was built - its original purpose unknown. This illustration included in William Hutton’s History of Birmingham, 1795. Ref – SC 14 @LibraryofBham @ReFutureC

We are now enrolling for our Play Together Learn Together course for 2 1/2 to 5 year olds at The Library of Birmingham! The course runs for five sessions and starts Wednesday 14th January 2026. Email childrens.library@birmingham.gov.uk to book your place.

#MapOnATuesday Here’s the 1946 Birmingham Corporation Inner Ring Road Key Plan. A map of Birmingham city centre showing the proposed route of the inner ring road in relation to existing streets. Ref : 669062 @LibraryofBham

#Christmas #Dickens in today’s blog we look at Birmingham’s link to A Christmas Carol. The Town Hall hosted Dicken’s 1st reading of the story on 27th December 1853 https://t.co/uW6krVbtP5 Ref: Christmas Stories Charles Dickens 1937. A 094/NON/1937 @LibraryofBham @Dickens_Society

#SundayShowcase is Lench's Trust by Carl Chinn and Dominic Bradley. In 1525, William Lenche used income from his estates to create a charity for the care of the poor. The trust continues this work today. Ref: L 41.1 @LibraryofBham @lenchs_trust

#CityOf1000Trades is this trade card for B. Day and their chimney ornament patent. Day’s manufactory located on Snow Hill specialised in producing what was referred to as Birmingham Gothic ware - designs loosely based on elements of Gothic design. Ref: MS 4834/858 @LibraryofBham

What’s on January! Free events and activities in the Children’s and Music Library 📚⛄️

#MerryChristmas Greetings to all from this cherubic face. It’s a trade card from the Ernest Dyche Collection - MS 2912 Christmas Box 50. Not typical of the photography Dyche was later associated with - https://t.co/CYGvlLEMBe @LibraryofBham

#PhotoFriday today is Spring Hill House. Built for John Howard Galton in c.1760 – described at the time as a fine and large mansion of the late Georgian period. The house was used for various purposes during its time and fell into decline. Ref: WK/H10/31 @LibraryofBham @Brumpic

#Birmingham #Panto Here’s the rather dashing Mr Paul Cinquevalli playing Fritz at the Prince of Wales Theatre, 1899. A popular act as a juggler in the English music halls. Ref: (513710) L 08.2 Periodicals D/11 - The Birmingham Pantomime annual, 1899 @LibraryofBham

#Birmingham #Circus One way to keep the family entertained during the festive period is to cart them off to the circus. This programme is for Stanley V. Parkin’s great continental circus at Bingley Hall for the 1951/52 season. Ref – LS 4/Circuses/15 @LibraryofBham

#Birmingham #BlackHistory Preservica now holds this interview with Daphne McCalla, discussing the life and contribution of her late husband, Edward A. McCalla, to gospel music heritage in the Midlands. Ref: MS 5207 https://t.co/e8zn2mzjpn https://t.co/I6BHCzrDDx @LibraryofBham

#ICI is 100 years old next year. Elizabeth McNab (1850- 1947) worked at Kynoch’s Munitions, Witton. She began work at 12 and appointed forewoman of her section aged 22. She served for 40 years, only ever absent to give birth to 8 children. Ref: MS 4616, No. 5 @LibraryofBham