Boston Athenæum

The Boston Athenæum is one of the oldest libraries and museums in the United States. It is located in the Beacon Street in Boston, Massachusetts.

History

The Athenaeum was founded in 1807 by members of the Anthology Club modeled after the Athenæum and Lyceum in Liverpool, England. The objective was in a " ... combination of the advantages of a general library and the collection of all the great works of learning and science in all languages ​​." It was financed by wealthy Boston merchants. Almost half a century provided the Athenæum the intellectual center of Boston dar. to the circle of writers and politicians who frequented here were Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Daniel Webster and Amy Lowell. The Athenæum had over 500,000 members, which are represented by 1,049 "owner" in 2005. This property is not for sale and handed down to the next generation.

Building

After its founding in 1807, the Athenaeum found a temporary accommodation in the Joy's buildings in the Congress Street before it moved shortly thereafter to the Scollay 's buildings on Tremont Street. 1809 saw the acquisition of Rufus Amory House, where the collections remained until 1822. The fast-growing stocks then moved into a house in Pearl Street, where in 1827 was for the art collections of the cultivation of a gallery building. Finally, the Athenæum commissioned the architect Edward Clarke Cabot with the construction of a new building in the Beacon Street in the Beacon Hill neighborhood, which was built 1847-1849. This original three -story building is the core of today's Athenæum. On the ground floor the sculpture collection was housed and had the library their rooms on the first floor. The top floor, with its skylights provided the appropriate conditions for the present there Gemäldegalerie. The architect Henry Forbes Bigelow added to the building 1913-1914 a fourth and fifth floor added.

Library

Since 1851, the Athenaeum was one of the five largest libraries in the United States. It possesses the private libraries of George Washington and General Henry Knox. Furthermore, it is here to find the King's Chapel collection, which King William III. the Massachusetts Bay Colony gave. In addition, located in the Athenaeum early documents of the United States, as well as prints and photographs from the 19th century.

In 2005, the library had a stock of over half a million books, focusing on the history of Boston, the New England states, biographies, English and American literature and art history books lies.

Art Collection

The first sculpture was the Athenæum in 1812 and the first painting came in 1818 in the collection, which was in 1827 for the first time open to the public. In addition to 1873 annual art exhibitions were held. After the founding of the Museum of Fine Arts this two of the four gallery rooms occupied in the house. When the museum moved into its own building in 1876, a large part of the art collection of the Athenæum in the possession of the Museum of Fine Arts went on.

Today, the Athenæum Jean -Antoine Houdon's busts of George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and the Marquis de Lafayette from the former owned by Thomas Jefferson at Monticello, painting by Mather Brown, John Singer Sargent, Gilbert Stuart, Thomas Sully, Chester Harding, and the largest has collection of the painter Cephas Thompson.

The photographic collection includes works by John Adams Whipple, Felix Nadar, Julia Margaret Cameron and Eadweard Muybridge.

Miscellaneous

The writer Amy Lowell was the atmosphere of the Athenaeum so impressed that they put a literary monument with the poem " The Boston Athenæum " of the institution.

Of the numerous portraits created the Gilbert Stuart of George Washington, is the so -called " Athenaeum Head " the best known, because this was the model for the $ 1 note. Nowadays, this painting is, however, at the Museum of Fine Arts.