A celebration of those often overlooked

"They have a very long-standing contribution to British society, over 300 years, in all different sectors, in every aspect you can imagine," she says of the exhibition she created alongside Alex Tickell, a scholar at the Open University.

"The British Library, being the national library of the country, is a really good platform to showcase this very long history," Loh adds.

Jamie Andrews, head of culture and learning at the British Library, said in an earlier interview that parallel exhibitions with the same theme and adaptations of local history have been held in more than 30 UK public libraries through the British Library's Living Knowledge Network.