Stories and pictures from Central Ref part 1

Back in 1938

Now here is the first of those Central Ref images I promised, one a month until July which was the month it opened back in 1934.

I have started with one of my favourites.

It is of the Social Sciences Room or Great Hall and was taken by Kurt Hübschmann in 1938.

Now I am a keen admirer of Mr Hübschmann’s work much of which featured in Picture Post.

He left Germany in 1934 and was one of founders of the magazine which started up in 1938 and ran to 1957.

So I am not surprised that Mr Hübschmann should have been on hand to snap the Central Ref in the October of 1938 just four years after it had been opened.

In the same place 76 years later

And as you do I decided to take a similar picture almost from the same spot featuring the same table 76 years later.

Now it was not where I used to sit.  I preferred the inner set of tables, closer to the admin hub which also gave a commanding view of what was going on.

But during the next few weeks I guess it will fill up, after all it remains a stunning place to study.

I however with be in the ground floor with the archives and local studies which has lots more to offer than the old library which will be for another story next month.

Down with the Archives and local history

That said I couldn't resist including just two images of the place on the first Saturday after it had opened.

There were still lots of people who had come to see how it has all changed, but mixed in with them were those engaged in serious study pouring over the archives and the local history material.

Now these are you are hardened veterans, who know their census return from their street directories, will spend hours matching parish records with snippets from old newspapers and can rattle off the difference between Greenwood's map and the OS for 1849.

Finding out what is on offer

But archives and local studies are also drawing in those who are just starting and for many of them the interactive touch screens are a brilliant introduction to all that is on offer.

So a new chapter in the Ref as begun and I reckon it is just what we all wanted.



Pictures; the Social Sciences Library, in 1934, Kurt Hübschmann, m51687, , courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass and the same in 2014, with a scene from the new Archives area from the collection of Andrew