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Boston Athenæum

The Boston Athenaeum is one of the oldest independent libraries in the United States. It is also one of a number of membership libraries,[2] for which patrons pay a yearly subscription fee to use Athenaeum services. The institution was founded in 1807 by the Anthology Club of Boston, Massachusetts.[3] It is located at 10½ Beacon Street on Beacon Hill.

Boston Athenæum

Boston, Massachusetts, U.S., United States

Private

1807

1

500,000+

17,725 (FY 2016)

4,345 (Membership, 2016)

Leah Rosovsky

67

10-1/2 Beacon Street, Boston, Massachusetts

1847

Edward Clarke Cabot; Bigelow & Wadsworth

October 15, 1966[1]

December 21, 1965

October 15, 1966

Resources of the Boston Athenaeum include a large circulating book collection; a public gallery; a rare books collection of over 100,000 volumes; an art collection of 100,000 paintings, sculptures, prints, drawings, photographs, and decorative arts; research collections including one of the world's most important collections of primary materials on the American Civil War; and a public forum offering lectures, readings, concerts, and other events. Special treasures include the largest portion of President George Washington's library from Mount Vernon; Jean-Antoine Houdon busts of Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and Lafayette once owned by Thomas Jefferson; a first edition copy of John James Audubon's The Birds of America; a 1799 set of Francisco Goya's Los caprichos; portraits by Gilbert Stuart, Chester Harding, and John Singer Sargent; and one of the most extensive collections of contemporary artists' books in the United States.[4]


The Boston Athenaeum is also known for the many prominent writers, scholars, and politicians who have been members, including Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Louisa May Alcott, Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., John Quincy Adams, Margaret Fuller, Francis Parkman, Amy Lowell, John F. Kennedy, and Edward M. Kennedy.

History[edit]

19th century[edit]

In 1803, a young Harvard graduate by the name of Phineas Adams established the magazine The Monthly Anthology, or Magazine of Polite Literature. Adams left the New England area in 1804, having insufficient funds to continue the periodical; however, the printers Munroe and Francis convinced other young men to contribute to and continue the magazine under the new title of The Monthly Anthology and Boston Review. By 1805, these young men founded the Anthology Society.

Mission statement[edit]

The mission of the Boston Athenaeum is to engage all who seek knowledge by making accessible the library's collections and spaces, thereby inspiring reflection, discourse, creative expression, and joy.

1810 Catalogue of the books in the Boston Athenaeum. 267 pp. 8°

1827 Catalogue of books in the Boston Athenaeum : to which are added the by-laws of the institution, and a list of its proprietors and subscribers. 356 pp. 8°

1830 Catalogue of books added to the Boston Athenaeum since the publication of the catalogue in January 1827. 64 pp. 8°

1831 Catalogue of tracts, scientific and alphabetical index. 5 v.

1834 Catalogue of books added to the Boston Athenaeum in 1830–1833. 80 pp. 8°

1840 Catalogue of books added to the Boston Athenaeum, since the publication of the catalogue in January, 1827. 179 pp. 8°

1849 Shelf Lists, 1849.

1863–1868 List of books added to the library of the Boston Athenaeum. 6 v. 8°

1868–1871 List of books added to the library of the Boston Athenaeum. 17 nos. 8°

1877–1896 List of additions. Second Series. No. 1–354. September 1, 187 to March 2, 1896. 1472 pp. sm. 4°

1874 Catalogue of the library of the Boston Athenaeum. 1807–1871. 5 v. 3402 pp. l. 8°

Athenæum, Pearl Street

Athenæum, Pearl Street

Athenæum, Pearl Street

Athenæum, Pearl Street

Interior, 1855

Interior, 1855

Interior, 1855

Interior, 1855

Boston Athenaeum, Beacon Street, c. 1855

Boston Athenaeum, Beacon Street, c. 1855

Sumner staircase, c. 1880s

Sumner staircase, c. 1880s

Statuary gallery, 19th century

Statuary gallery, 19th century

1905

1905

In the 1998 film , the Boston Athenaeum is used as a stand-in for the Harvard Club of New York City.

A Civil Action

List of National Historic Landmarks in Boston

National Register of Historic Places listings in northern Boston, Massachusetts

Memoir of the Boston Athenaeum with the Act of Incorporation and Organization of the Institution. Boston, MA: Munroe & Francis, 1807.Google books

William Smith Shaw

The History of the Boston Athenaeum, with Biographical Notices of its Deceased Founders. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Metcalf and Company, 1851. Google books

Josiah Quincy III

The Athenæum Centenary, The Influence and History of the Boston Athenaeum from 1807 to 1907 with a Record of its Officers and Benefactors and a Complete List of Proprietors. Boston, The Boston Athenæum, 1907.

Google books

Robert F. Perkins Jr. & William J. Gavin III, editors, The Boston Athenaeum Art Exhibition Index, 1827-1874. Boston, MA: The Boston Athenæum, 1980.

The Boston Athenaeum website

. George Washington (The Athenæum Portrait)

Flickr

https://www.flickr.com/photos/24934245@N00/2065520083/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/29498542@N05/3118776762/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/21843970@N00/421678201/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/solongago/3771609879/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/lizmuir/4226349943/

panel on Athenæum history, 2010

Simmons