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For In the Margins, a group of artists, writers, students, and Manchester residents have come together to challenge the traditionally ‘male, stale, and pale’ reputation of historic libraries by asking: Whose voice is loud enough to be heard? Who are the arbiters of established facts? Through whose eyes do we frame the world?

From the obscured and overlooked to the dangerous and disturbing, the Library's eighteenth and nineteenth-century collection reflects the histories of Manchester and the world. But it is what is left unsaid that haunts the texts as they sit so ‘politely’ on these two-hundred-year-old shelves. To choose the books and activities in this display, we have considered what blurs when we focus, what doesn’t make the word count, and what is too-often relegated to the background.

Throughout the year, the Portico hosts exhibitions from local and international artists that examine the historic collection’s influence on twenty-first-century life and society. This summer, we have cleared the display space for you to tell us what these books mean to you, how the city can make the most of this unique resource, and what futures the Library can contribute to.

Between April and June 2022, display materials, images, texts and activities will appear here as the Library’s visitors create them. Bookmark this page and follow our social media to see them, and to add your responses.

 
 

In the Margins In the Frame
Bring your selfies, snaps of friends and family, or magazine clippings along to the Library and make a collage to add yourself to the gallery.

 
 

In 1806, the Portico Library’s 400 founders included doctors, scientists, politicians, writers, and religious leaders– some were anti-slavery and anti-poverty campaigners while some profited from enslavement and exploitation. While many of the books that these subscribers gathered promoted forward-thinking ideas, many did not, and the collection that survives today reflects perspectives on the world from positions of power and privilege.

Today, the Library is used and enjoyed by people from all backgrounds and we want its future to be shaped by the city’s communities. Throughout this display of books and activities, you can share your ideas for making the Library more welcoming and accessible and discuss how we might best use the collections' problematic historical items.

Personal perspectives

Representation

 

Personal perspectives

 
 

Photo: Marge Bradshaw

Most of the Portico Library’s 25,000 books are over 150 years old. Its large Voyages & Travels section offers British and European perspectives on cultures from across the world at a time of colonial expansion and exploitation.

 

Apapat Jai-in Glynn, Portico Library Engagement Coordinator:

“When our exhibition planning group found this book, we had a great conversation about Hindu gods and how our various cultures intersect and overlap. As a Thai person, I grew up with influences from China, India, and Southeast Asia and we can still see evidence of Hindu history throughout our museums, literature, and ceremonies today. Since working at the Portico, I have discovered a lot of books commenting on Southeast Asian culture from British viewpoints that omit local people’s perspectives and experiences.” 

The Vara Avatar, from The History of Hindostan, Thomas Maurice, 1795

 

A Journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem in 1697, Henry Maundrell, 1721

 

Abir Tobji In the Margins project coordinator:

“This view of Aleppo is familiar to me. Growing up in Aleppo, I saw this view from my window every day.”

Everyone’s perspective on the world is unique and is formed from their own personal experiences. How about you? Do you remember the view from your window where you grew up?

Share the view from your window and see other people’s views from around the world at www.window-swap.com 

Abir Tobji and her family in Aleppo, late 1990s

 

Dr Shahireh Sharif, collection care volunteer, shares her passion for the Iranian classic poem Shahnameh (The Epic of Kings) on her website, www.friendsofshahnameh.com. After volunteering with the Library for many months, she found this 1883 edition of the book in the Portico collection, translated into English by Helen Zimmern.

The Epic of Kings

1883, by Helen Zimmern

 

Shahireh:

“Shahnameh is a long poem (over 50,000 rhyming couplets) of stories from Greater Iran. It was written in 1010 A.C.E and is particularly timeless due to its universal human values.

به نیکی گرای و میازار کس

ره رستگاری همین است و بس

Being benevolent, kind and merciful

is the only way to salvation

Shahnameh includes the story of Zal, a baby rejected by his father because of his white hair. Zal grows up to become a saviour of the society which cast him out at birth. Although hair colour might not be a common source of discrimination today, we still live in a world where people are judged by their physical appearance.”

 
 

Who is represented and who get to represent themselves?

This illustration from The History of Earth and Animated Nature by Oliver Goldsmith (1862) depicts people through a heavily colonialist lens. Click the image to view.

The Portico Library’s historic collection overwhelmingly contains the views and ideas of white, male authors. Many were curious about cultures from around the world, but this curiosity was not always accompanied by respect, as in this example that contains many racist and derogatory ideas. How might books like this have been different if the people depicted had represented themselves?

Helayna Lagos, placement student and editor:

“Illustrations are a powerful medium for conveying ideas; however, we must remember that they are not unbiased or neutral. We must always ask ourselves: Whose narrative is being centred? Is it the artist or the subject? Are biases and prejudices being perpetuated?”

The Strange Career of the Chevalier d’Eon De Beaumont, J. Buchan Telfer, 1885

Finding records of LGBT+ people in historic collections can be difficult. The noted spy and diplomat, the Chevalier d’Eon, is a rare example of an 18th-century trans person whose life was memorialised and whose biography has been preserved.

How can we use the Library’s historic collection to reflect 21st-century ideas, interests, and experiences? Chat with us or click here if you’d like to start your own research project.

Ruby Seddon-Wilson, placement student:

“This book is an amazing piece of trans history, when so much has been lost. It helps to dispel the myth that trans and gender-queer identities are a ‘modern construct’.”

Read The Transgender Issue by Shon Faye, plus more books on In the Margins’ themes here.  

Autobiography of Lutfullah, 1857 edited by Edward B. Eastwick

Sibia Akhtar, Portico Prize Society member:

“I’ve found it interesting reading this autobiography of a 19th-century Muslim writer from South Asia and learning about his motivations for writing his memoir. How did he get his book published? What relationships did he need to build?”

As recently as 2017, the Book Trust reported that despite a third of primary school children in England being from ethnic minority backgrounds, only 1.98% of authors and illustrators published in the UK were British people of colour. 

The Portico Prize and Portico Sadie Massey Awards help young people into publishing and aim to broaden definitions of ‘the North’ to reflect the region’s diversity. Would you like to get involved in publishing? Let us know how we might help you get your voice heard.

Life in the Sick-room, 1844 by Harriet Martineau

Life in the Sick Room was one of the first English books to be published by a deaf author, and also one of the earliest to present a first-person account of chronic illness. 

Ruby Seddon-Wilson:

“Having a disability or chronic illness can be a very isolating experience and to feel seen in books even from so long ago is really important. Books like this help break down stereotypes and empower disabled people to feel valued. For someone like me who wants to work in academia but also has a disability, this book reassures me that I can be an asset to discourse and there is a precedent for people like me.”

Ourselves: a series of essays on women, 1869 by E. Lynn Linton

When writers are able to represent themselves, do they have a responsibility to advocate for people who share their identities and experiences? Eliza Lynn Linton was the first woman in Britain to earn a salary for her writing and held anti-feminist views. In Ourselves: Essays on Women, Linton argued against women’s rights.

Library volunteer and artist Thu Le Ha: 

“Lots of the issues from these historic books are still relevant today. In 2022, you can still find “women’s magazines” edited by men and women that perpetuate misogyny.”

Check out www.shewantsadogpodcasts.com/sickbabe for “a series of funny, frank chats with fellow #SickBabes who exist and resist every day with invisible physical health conditions.

 

Thomas Duckett’s hand-written letters in A Key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet B. Stowe (1853)

While the Library contains many books about slavery—a vital subject of debate today and in the 19th century—it is rare to find first-hand accounts from enslaved people that have not been edited by authors or publishers. Hand-written letters like this one from Thomas Duckett are invaluable as they are likely to reflect individuals’ genuine views.

The World Reimagined is “a ground-breaking, national art education project to transform how we understand the Transatlantic Slave Trade and its impact on all of us”.

Its learning resources, including books from the Portico Library’s collection, can be accessed at www.theworldreimagined.org

 

Discover more in the In the Margins online bookshop, where proceeds support the Library’s charitable activities

 
 
 

One of the challenges of working with the Portico’s nineteenth-century collection is encountering offensive or distressing contents. This page contains examples of racist and colonialist images which we have blurred so that you can choose whether you want to look at them today.

In the Margins display planning group:

“Although these images can be difficult or painful to see, it is important that they are preserved and displayed. They are evidence of prejudice and persecution that some people would like us to forget”

click to reveal

These illustrations contain racist and colonialist images that might be uncomfortable to some.

Artist Birungi Kawooya:

“African contributions to music and dance are well documented, inspiring us to watch, move, and express ourselves. However, the legacy of colonialism has contributed to a preoccupation with Black bodies for entertainment. This page from Emin Pasha in Central Africa describes East Africans dancing and judges their modesty. Too often, references to life in Africa are through the dehumanising lens of white supremacy. Who are the African voices you listen to, for views on the wider world?

 
 
 
 

Have you visited the In the Margins display at the Portico Library? Have your say below.

 
 

Do you think it’s right to show books like the ones in this display? Does showing them perpetuate harmful ideas or illuminate important topics? What support could the Library give you if you choose to view them?


What are the challenges and opportunities for an individual person trying to choose keywords/subjects to organise catalogue entries in an inclusive and accessible way?

 
 

Many of the Portico Library’s books have been preserved for over 200 years. What present-day book, recipe, song, or TV show would you like to save for future generations to experience and why?


Did you look at the books in the covered areas? Would you display these in an exhibition? Why might you not want to show them?

 
 

Should we change the subjects in the Portico Library’s card catalogue to try to make it more inclusive, or should it be kept as it is and explained with a label?

 
 
 
 
 

Prefer to chat to us directly? Give us a call on 0161 2366785 or email gallery@theportico.org.uk

 
 

Who we are

Row one, left to right: lecturer and video producer Maria Gabriella Ruban; designer and student placement holder Ang Li; artist and educator, Birungi Kawooya; heritage and cultural manager Esther Lisk-Carew

Row two, left to right: artist and Manchester Museum creative programmer Hattie Kongaunruan; illustrator and editor Helayna Adamou Lagos; product designer and VAGUE artistic director Karina So; artist and education specialist Kevin Dalton-Johnson

Row three, left to right: artist and DJ Lee Crocker; researcher and historian Sami Pinarbasi; artist and lecturer Sarah-Joy Ford, Young People’s Museum Collective member and Digital Futures intern Sibia Akhtar

Row four, left to right: In the Margins project coordinator Abir Tobji; historian and researcher Sonali Dhanpal; writer and filmmaker Shahireh Sharif; curator and writer Uthra Rajgopal

Row five, left to right: artist and Portico volunteer Thu Le Ha; artist and lecturer Andy Broadey; UEA doctoral student and museum consultant Benjamina Efua Dadzie; PROFORMA director and artist Chi Emecheta

Row six, left to right: poet and facilitator Elmi Ali; artist and Portico exhibitor Meha Hindocha; writer and former engineer Mo Ray; curator and Asia Art Activism director Annie Jael Kwan

For In the Margins, we have worked with the Portico Library’s Exhibitions Curator James Moss and Engagement Coordinator Apapat Jai-in Glynn, and with University of Manchester student placement holders Maia Mellentin, Tia Blythe, and Ruby Seddon-Wilson. Thanks to all the Library’s volunteers, staff, Trustees and members.

In the Margins has been made possible with grants from the Architectural Heritage Fund and the Zochonis Charitable Trust.

 
 
 

Your place in history. Your library.

Ever since the Portico opened over 200 years ago, people have visited from across the world. The Library’s hand-written ‘Strangers Books’ record people from Cuba, India, China, Nigeria, Brazil, and elsewhere, reflecting Manchester’s role as a global city. Whatever you’re into, you’ll find rare and significant books of interest in the Portico’s collection. You might even find something with family connections…

 

The Song of Hiawatha,1856 by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiak, or Black Hawk

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor

 

Portico committee member Esther Lisk Carew:

“The Song of Hiawatha, although written by a white American author, was based on oral histories from Ojibwe leaders including Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiak (Black Hawk) and Kah-Ge-Ga-Gah-Bowh.

Hiawatha

by Edmonia Lewis

It inspired African-American-Ojibwe artist Edmonia Lewis to sculpt its title character, and later, (my Great-Great-Grandfather!), composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, to create a musical trilogy based on its text”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

 

Edmonia Lewis

Kah-Ge-Ga-Gah-Bowh

 

The Library’s future

Last year, the Portico published a statement at www.theportico.org.uk/about to set out how we will make the Library a more diverse, collaborative, and inspiring place where everyone is treated fairly. We’ll continue to work with artists, creators, and local residents to re-interpret the Library’s collection and would love to hear from you as we improve this process. Please connect with us online or chat with our staff and volunteers if you’d like to get involved.

 
 

Responses from visitors

 

Responses from visitors to our questions regarding the collection are not only displayed and recorded but also stored as valuable input to the Library.

 
 
“It’s good to see how society has progressed. It’s good to use them to facilitate open dialogue in order to understand how these harmful ideas may actually have evolved into other ideas that do still have a massive impact on society, both locally and globally. ”
— library visitor
“[...] The issue is not “harmful ideas” as if it were some diseases to be cured before it infects people. That idea is far more dangerous as it perpetuates censorship and eventually the banning of certain ideas the modern trend states is bad. [..]”
— library visitor
“These books make part of our history which can’t be undone but must be known to understand it and help us learn from it. The library can/must put these books in their context, explain them – not as a treasure of the library, but as a “warnendes beispiel (cautionary tale)”. It must help us take off our Eurocentric glasses. ”
— library visitor
“I think we definitely should show books that are controversial (with the appropriate contexts.) [...] A lot to be learnt, reflected, and discussed [...], exhibitions, displays and workshops such as this is much needed.”
— Quote Source
“[...] People may die and civilization may change, but human nature may remain for much longer time. And I think those things unchanged are the bridges between current and future generations. It is also romantic to imagine people from different centuries can shape a piece of music about their common nature. ”
— library visitor
“I think [displaying them] is best: that way we can learn from past experiences. It offers a chance to really understand, or better, to keep asking questions. How we have spoken about issues, tells a lot about developments in society.”
— Library visitor
“Every person has a unique background which shapes the way they look at the world. How they choose to catalogue something could be vastly different from how another person might choose to.”
— library visitor
“Not just the obvious struggle with usability because how can you know what might be challenging for everyone? But mainly the fact that you cannot know the answers to questions you wouldn’t feel ok asking - key words and subjects can be only chosen by whom it may concern. So ask”
— library visitor
 
“I did have a look and I would display these in an exhibition. One could argue that by displaying these books, we keep some ideas alive (about racism for example) but I think it’s better to raise awareness, so that we can recognise that’s exactly what they are: ideas. Now it’s time to rise above them and think again.”
— library visitor
“[...] As a society we elevate reading and books over almost any other form of entertainment. This can lead to such a book-saturation that any book can be deemed “worthy” just because it is imprint. [...]”
— library visitor
“I would display books such as those in an exhibition. They are a very valuable primary and secondary source for a historian, as they present the news/attitudes prevalent at the time, and so must not be discounted. It is only by studying contemporary sources that the true beliefs/viewpoints can be ascertained, and this must always be placed within the historical context of the time [...]”
— library visitor
“Yes – I looked at the Blake illustration. A * hung alive by the ribs to a gallows. My reaction was immediate and profound and I filled with tears. I turned away and felt shaky. But I nevertheless believe that such images should be in an exhibition, as whilst they may be very shocking it is important for us to bear witness to such atrocities. We must look and witness to keep our society vigilant against such atrocities.”
— library visitor
 
 
 

Card Catalogue & ‘‘Next Paragraph’’ Activity

During In the Margins, we ask visitors to create new index & categories for historic library cards based on the title, author & descriptions as well as using existing paragraphs in books from the collection as prompts for creative writing. These wonderfully creative responses are then displayed and recorded as part of the exhibition.

As well as the online catalogue , the Library also still keeps a physical version, with each book’s record written out on a card. Each of these has just one keyword, called its ‘subject‘, and the cards are organised alphabetically in subject order.

If you were searching for books on Elizabeth Montagu, you might search under Montagu, but you would miss the book below, as it is listed under the subject Correspondence.

If you were choosing new subject headings for these books, what words would you use?

 
 

“Next Paragraph” Activity

What Comes Next?

Although most of the Portico Library’s books are written from a white British perspective, Manchester is one of Europe’s most diverse cities. Between 150 and 200 languages are spoken by its long-term residents.

We selected some of the books in the Portico’s collection and use them as prompts for visitors to be creative and continue to write from their imagination to finish the sentence.