Carving of the founder of Esperanto, Dr.Ludovic Lazarus Zamenhof, by E.R.Buckley. Dr.Zamenhof was the Honorary President of the Keighley Esperanto Society (the first in England) formed in 1902 by Joseph Rhodes. The work is situated on the wall outside the Reference Library.

Keighley journalist Joseph Rhodes was described in a Keighley News report (17.01.59) as 'a distinguished gentleman with an Inverness cape, pointed beard, waxed moustache and a kindly eye'. Joseph Rhodes' campaigning for a local Esperanto society had produced a group of 58 enthusiasts by 1904, compared with 3 in Leeds, 6 in Birmingham and 147 in London. He also produced an English-Esperanto dictionary comprising over 500 pages. Joseph Rhodes died in 1920 and the local branch expired during World War Two.