'I uncover deadly Victorian dresses and forgotten stories hidden inside everyday objects in Leeds’ past'

From childhood board games and Victorian toys to deadly dresses dyed with arsenic, Kitty Ross spends her days uncovering the stories hidden inside ordinary objects.

As Curator of Social History for Leeds Museums and Galleries, Kitty helps preserve the memories, artefacts and curiosities that tell the story of Leeds and its people, and she says much of the work happens far from the public eye.

“A lot of it is behind the scenes,” she said.

“I’m currently working at the Leeds Discovery Centre, which is where the reserve collections are kept.

“We spend a lot of time making sure everything is catalogued and documented properly so we know what we’ve got and where it is.

“People often imagine museums as dusty basements, but it’s not like that at all. Everything has to be photographed, researched, described and interpreted.”

Kitty’s role includes planning exhibitions, answering public enquiries and deciding what new objects should be collected for the city’s archives.

She said: “We’re always looking for gaps in the collection. Sometimes people offer us things, but we also actively collect items that help tell stories we don’t already represent very well.”

And some of those objects are stranger than others.

“We’ve just accepted a model boat made by a Leeds gentleman using wood from a mortuary block from Leeds General Infirmary,” she said.

Another item that captured her imagination was an extraordinary handcrafted artwork created by a Leeds factory worker.

“He lived in Armley and spent about 20 years making this intricate piece from around 80 different types of wood,” she said.

“He never really travelled, but people from around the world sent him wood samples and postcards. He was just an industrial worker with a passion and a hobby, but the result is an incredible work of art.”

One of Kitty’s best-known passion projects is Leeds Museums’ collection of Waddingtons board games, a nostalgic archive of Leeds-made entertainment that reveals changing social attitudes across generations.

“I definitely grew up as a ‘Waddingtons child’,” she said.

“Almost everything I played with in the 1970s was made by Waddingtons.”

Among her favourites is a 1970s game called Rat Race.

She said: “It was like a more elaborate Monopoly where you worked your way from working class to high society by acquiring things. You could even have a society wedding to move up faster.”

Another memorable game was Slam, which involved plastic mice and a cup that snapped down onto players’ fingers.

“All I remember is that it really hurt your fingers,” she laughed.

But Kitty says these games are much more than nostalgic toys.

“They reveal social attitudes,” she said.

“A huge number of games are about money, gambling and accumulating wealth. There were also career-based games that were incredibly gendered at the time.”

Some games, she added, reflect more uncomfortable parts of British history.

“There are racial caricatures and stereotypes that would absolutely not be acceptable now, but they tell us something important about society at the time,” she said.

One particularly unusual item in the collection is Grade Up to Elite Cow, a niche board game produced for dairy farmers.

She said: “It was created for a cattle breeding society, so it was very specialised.

“It wasn’t really a general retail game, more of a fundraiser. It’s got an incredible title though.”

Kitty has also curated exhibitions exploring dangerous objects and hidden hazards from everyday life.

Some of the most surprising items included children’s toys and Victorian clothing.

“A lot of early plastics and fabrics were incredibly flammable,” she said.

“We also found dresses dyed with arsenic-based green pigments. We tested some of them and discovered traces of arsenic were still present.”

One object in the exhibition was a varnished wooden advertising piece promoting asbestos products.

Kitty said: “It was advertising all the wonderful things you can do with asbestos.

“The object itself was just varnished wood with printed pictures on it, but what it was telling you was pretty horrific.”

Kitty’s latest project, In the Picture at Abbey House Museum, forms part of the city-wide Leeds 400 celebrations, marking 400 years since Leeds received its first royal charter.

The exhibition brings together objects, paintings and photographs from the Leeds Museums and Galleries collection to tell lesser-known stories from across the city’s history.

“It’s difficult because objects survive unevenly through history,”said Kitty.

“The easiest stories to collect are often within living memory because people can tell you about the objects themselves.”

Among the exhibition’s most striking exhibits is the wrestling gear of pioneering Leeds wrestler Sue Brittain, better known in the ring as Lady Satan.

The exhibition also features the skeleton of Mok the gorilla, one half of a famous primate pair once housed at London Zoo.

Other objects include a Victorian tricycle from Harehills, a 1937 coronation evening dress and a handcrafted double bass made by Leeds instrument maker Mark William Dearlove for the Great Exhibition at Crystal Palace in 1851.

“It’s always easier when I’m collecting things that are within the living memory of the person who’s donating them, because then they can tell you about it,” said Kitty.

“Older objects can be much more difficult to research because people didn’t always write the stories down.”

As well as preserving Leeds’ industrial and social history, Kitty has also worked on exhibitions about fairy tales, childhood and storytelling.

“Children’s books tell you a huge amount about social attitudes and what adults believed children should learn,” she said.

“Early books were very moral and instructive, whereas later stories became much more imaginative and child-focused.”

And for young people hoping to follow a similar career path, Kitty says curiosity matters most.

“Start with passion and curiosity,” she said.

“Experience is incredibly important in museums, so volunteering can make a huge difference.

“It’s a competitive sector because lots of people want to work in museums, but enthusiasm and determination really matter.”