Annual Library Lecture: The Enlightened Mr Parkinson

Today Parkinson’s disease is one of the most familiar of all neurological disorders, but few know anything about the man who first identified it. Our 2026 Annual Library Lecture will reveal the life of this pioneering individual. A champion of the poor and underprivileged, the apothecary James Parkinson (1755-1824) soon gained notoriety for authoring anti-government pamphlets, and when embroiled in a plot to kill King George III, he put his own life on the line trying to save his friends. However, during his lifetime he was most famous for his exquisitely illustrated works on fossils, which revealed an unknown prehistoric world littered with ‘wrecks of an early Creation’, and for which he was awarded the Royal College of Surgeon’s first-ever gold medal. Dr Cherry Lewis is an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Bristol. A geologist and historian of science, she has published extensively on these topics, including her book The Enlightened Mr Parkinson, copies of which will be on sale after the lecture. A first edition of James Parkinson’s essay on the shaking palsy, generously bequeathed to the Cathedral Library by Dr Christopher Gardner-Thorpe in 2025, will be on display at the lecture.