Piety and Profit: Contrasting Careers in Stained Glass

Samantha Yates is taking the stage at Leeds City Library on Wednesday 21 October with Piety and Profit: Contrasting Careers in Stained Glass, a talk that looks at a side of the city's history you probably never think about when you're walking past the old churches. It's all about the stained-glass industry that flourished in Victorian Leeds, and the two men who helped shape it in the late nineteenth century.

Those two were William Pape and John James Kayll. They both worked in the same trade, but they came at it from opposite ends: Pape from a religious background and Kayll with a business-minded approach. Yates' talk draws on original research to put their lives and careers side by side, weighing Pape's faith against Kayll's enterprise to show how those different motivations influenced what actually got produced. It's a way of seeing how faith, ambition and business all played a part in the city's stained-glass trade, and it gives a glimpse into a chapter of Leeds' artistic and industrial heritage that doesn't often get its own spotlight.

The session is part of the Leeds Libraries' Leeds400 programme, which marks 400 years since the city received its first Royal Charter from King Charles I in 1626. So it's one of many things happening across the city to mark that anniversary. If you've ever looked up at the glass in one of our old buildings and wondered who was behind it, this is exactly the kind of thing that fills in the gaps.

It's a free talk, so you don't need to worry about tickets or booking ahead. You'll find it at Leeds City Library on Calverley Street, LS1 3AB, on Wednesday 21 October.