The story of our books: the stranger and a race to the Sun.

Interpretations below were written by the Portico Library volunteers as part of Bookends and Beginnings: Stories from our collections by our volunteers exhibition.

The Strangers Book 1837-1855

“The 'Strangers Books' have been a fascination for me since the beginning of joining as a volunteer. Within its pages are a record of people, places, history, and global events spanning over two hundred years. These ‘Strangers Books’ are hand-written records of all those who visited the Library since its opening.

On researching one visitor, Moses Roper, I discovered he escaped slavery from Florida and was the first to lecture on his experiences in England, eventually settling in London and writing his autobiography, Narrative of the Adventures and Escape of Moses Roper from American Slavery.”

Cathy Fraser

Contributions to Solar Physics, 1870 by J. Norman Lockyer

“J. Norman Lockyer (1836-1920) was an English scientist and astronomer. This book is an academic study of the sun, with chapters about solar eclipses, solar flares, and sunspots. Throughout the book, there are intricate and colourful diagrams, including the diagram on Solar Spectral analysis.

In 1868 there was an eclipse. At the time, there were many scientists studying the eclipse around the world. During his spectral analysis of the eclipse, Lockyer discovered a prominent yellow line near the edge of the sun, depicted in the diagram on display.

At the time, there was no name for this mysterious element, and so he named it Helium after the Greek God of the sun ‘Helios’. At the same time, French astronomer Pierre Janssen also discovered Helium! Janssen and Lockyer’s scientific papers were sent to the French Academy of Sciences and were presented on the same day, with joint confirmation that they both discovered Helium. The discovery of Helium was a pivotal moment in scientific history, and in our understanding of the sun.”

 Heather Allso