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Acquired Tastes: 200 Years of Collecting for the Boston Athenaeum

For media inquiries, please contact Kirsten Alexander, Marketing & Communications Officer at 617-720-7654 or alexander@bostonathenaeum.org

The Boston Athenaeum has a once-in-a-generation exhibition running through July 13^th that includes many rarely displayed items (rare books, sculpture, painting, manuscripts, maps, etc.) appealing to those interested in Boston’s cultural and literary life and history.  The Acquired Tastes: 200 Years of Collecting for the Boston Athenaeum exhibition is free and open to the public at 10 ½ Beacon Street, just steps from the State House and overlooking the Old Granary Burial Ground. Hours are Monday 9-8, Tuesday-Friday 9-5, closed on July 4^th. Exhibition admission is free and open to the public. The Athenaeum is air conditioned.

This is the largest Athenæum exhibition in 130 years, since much of the art collection was put on deposit at the new Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, which held its first few exhibitions at the Athenaeum prior to opening its own building.

The Athenaeum was founded in 1807 and famous members of the past include: John Quincy Adams, William Ellery Channing, Harrison Gray Otis, John Lowell, Josiah Quincy, Samuel Eliot, Charles Sumner, Edward Everett, Daniel Webster, Bronson Alcott, Hannah Adams (the first woman admitted, in 1839), Lydia Maria Child, Elizabeth Peabody, and Gilbert Stuart, who was made a life member "as a testimony of respect for his eminent talents." It is still a membership library, home to many writers, scholars, and researchers.  Amongst the collections are book collections from the libraries of George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and Henry Knox. Individual membership starts at $110 per year for younger members; regular membership is $220 per year.  There are also family memberships. 


Among the 100+ items now on display are the following works…

• The famous Boston Massacre print by Paul Revere, Jr.
  
• An encyclopedia owned by Benjamin Franklin,
  
• Two paintings and a bust of patriot John Adams,
  
• A sampling of the Athenaeum’s extensive Civil War era collection, including a copy of the Emancipation Proclamation signed by Abraham Lincoln, a Civil War photograph album assembled by Alice Mason (Mrs. Charles Sumner), and a Confederate imprint with a colorful rendition of artillery uniforms, and
  
• Two oil paintings by South End painter Alan Rohan Crite
  
• New works in photography and art books
  
• Two books on display represent the George Washington library in the Trustees' Room: Thomas Paine's Common Sense, signed by Washington and bound for him; and a collection of Washington's speeches ornately bound by Henry Bilson Legge of Boston.
  
• The famous Paul Revere engraving of the “Bloody Massacre”
  

Images from the Exhibition:

Horatio Greenough (1805-1852) Venus Victrix, 1837-1840 Marble, 145.3 x 41 x 47.6 cm Gift of the estate of John Lowell, Jr., 1842 Larger Image		Mather Brown (1761-1831) John Adams, 1788 Oil on canvas, 90.2 x 71.3 cm Bequest of George Francis Parkman, 1908 Larger Image		Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (1746–1828) Los caprichos Madrid: [by the artist], 1799 Engraving, 30.3 x 21.5 cm Athenæum purchase, John Bromfield Fund, 1830 Larger Image

Polly (Thayer) Starr (1904-2006) Donald C. Starr, 1934 Oil on canvas, 127.6 x 89.5 cm Gift of Polly Thayer Starr, 1995 Larger Image	Thomas Sully (1783 - 1872) Thomas Handasyd Perkins, 1831 - 1832 Oil on canvas, 287 x 195.6 cm Athenæum purchase, 1832 Larger Image	Jean-Antoine Houdon (1741 – 1828) Marquis de Lafayette , before 1789 Plaster, painted white over the original terracotta-color paint, 74.8 x 51 x 50.2 cm Athenæum purchase, 1828 Larger Image

© 2007 The Proprietors of the Boston Athenæum.
Library of the Boston Athenæum
10½ Beacon Street
Boston, MA 02108
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Page Last Updated June 2007
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