Civil Rights
Movements, leaders, victories and the continuing fight for equality.
Explore the people, places, events, achievements, struggles and stories that shaped our journey.
Movements, leaders, victories and the continuing fight for equality.
Innovation, patents, science, technology and world-changing contributions.
Pioneers, champions, Negro Leagues, records, activism and excellence.
Meet the people whose lives, choices and achievements shaped the journey.
Black towns, communities, institutions and places where history happened.
Moments that changed communities, movements, institutions and the nation.
In August 1908, a white mob attacked Springfield, Illinois’s Black community, destroying homes and businesses and lynching two Black men. National outrage over the violence helped spur the movement that created the NAACP the following year.
MORE →Reflects the personal views, recollections, and perspective of the author, Mike Davis.
This is a personal recollection on the Move fire on May 13, 1985
Putney Library is a Grade II listed public library in the London Borough of Wandsworth.[1]
The library is at numbers 5 to 7 on the north side of Disraeli road, just off Putney High street.[2]
The original building design was inspired by Norman Shaw[3] and designed by Francis J Smith.[4] It was paid for by George Newnes, who established 'Tit-Bits' magazine,[5] and was built by H. Roffey of Putney.[6] The library was opened in 1899[7] by Lord Russell of Killowen.[6]

The building has three storeys and the original reading room has a vaulted roof.[8] During World War Two the basement of the building was used as an Air Raid Patrol centre.[9]
Wandsworth Museum opened in the library building in 1986, but later moved to the Old County Court House in Garratt Lane in 1996, and subsequently merged with Battersea Arts Centre.[8]
In 1977, a single storey extension was built to the left of the main building to house a children's library and a music library.[8] At this time, the entrance was still through the original building.[7]
In 1997, the 70's extension was demolished and a glass one added with a new entrance designed by Trevor Williams of Wandsworth Borough Council design service.[10] The extension cost £2,800,000; the floorspace was expanded to 2300 square metres[11] and the original building's stone face was cleaned and restored.[12] The 90's extension won the Mayor's Award for accessibility for wheelchair users and those with hearing disability aids, and it was also the winner of the Public Library Building Award 1999 in the large refurbished library category.[13]
In 2021, Wandsworth Borough Council proposed that the library become a community hub, including shared workspaces and a new community cafe.[14]
There are over 20,000 books in the library's collection.[15] As a public library all books are free to borrow, though only a limited amount at any one time, and with charges for borrowing CDs and DVDs.[2]
In 2020, the library had a book that was returned after 56 years, due back in 1964; it was sent from Athens, Greece.[16]
The library also has a digital collection with online reference material that can be accessed on the library website or the Libby app. In the building, there are also computer terminals with free internet access, study rooms for both adults and children, regular reading groups, and other meetings.[2] MPs and local town Councillors also hold their surgeries in rooms in the building.[17]
The Friends of Putney Library organise events and exhibitions in the library.[18]
As of spring 2022, the library is open on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, from 09:00 to 20:00, on Fridays and Saturdays from 09:00 to 17:00, Sundays from 13:00 to 17:00, and it is closed on Tuesdays. [19] There is ramp access from the Disraeli road pavement into the building, and a lift.[2]
The library is served by Transport for London buses 14, 39. 85, 93, 424, and 430 which stop at Putney Station on Putney High Street. East Putney tube station (District line) is an 7-minute walk and Putney railway station (Southwestern Railway) is an 1-minute walk round the corner.[20]
The Santander Cycles Putney rail station docking station is a 2-minute walk,[21] there is also public cycle parking on Disraeli road.
Source: Wikipedia. Article content is retrieved live through the MediaWiki API.
Putney Library is a Grade II listed public library in the London Borough of Wandsworth.
Putney Swope is a 1969 American independent satirical comedy film written and directed by Robert Downey Sr., and starring Arnold Johnson as the title character, a black advertising executive. The film satirizes the advertising world, the portrayal of race in Hollywood films and the nature of corporate corruption. In 2016, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Martha Settle Putney (November 9, 1916 – December 11, 2008) was an American educator and historian who chronicled the roles of African Americans in the armed forces. After serving as one of the first black members of the Women's Army Corps during World War II, she devoted her life to researching and documenting the military service and achievements of black Americans. Following a period of employment with the War Manpower Commission after her discharge from the army, she entered the academic world, earning a PhD at the University of Pennsylvania and pursuing a distinguished teaching career at Bowie State College (now Bowie State University) in Maryland, where she chaired the history and geography department, and later at Howard University, her alma mater, in Washington, D.C. Upon retiring from the faculty at Howard, she embarked on a writing career that included three books and over 20 journal articles. At the time of her death at age 92 she was working on a fourth book portraying the contributions of blacks in combat dating back to the American Revolutionary War.
Putney () is a district in southwest London, England, in the London Borough of Wandsworth, five miles (eight kilometres) southwest of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.
Before the 1921 destruction of Tulsa’s Greenwood District, Black residents had created a remarkable center of business and community life. The district included stores, professional offices, entertainment venues and homes owned by Black citizens. Understanding Greenwood means learning what was built—not only what was burned.
MORE →The Greenwood District.