The “Names of Strangers Introduced” at the Athenaeum is a unique and historically significant part of the library’s records.

Essentially a guest book, the list included notable figures such as senators, artists, writers, commanders, and one king: Samuel Morse (in 1837), Washington Irving (1832, 1851), Harriet Beecher Stowe (1856), Henry James (1849), William Makepeace Thackeray (1852), Horace Greeley (1869), and King Kamehameha III of the Hawaiian Islands (1850).

Strange days, indeed.