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News
November 15, 2021
The Pop-Up Holiday Book Shop is back—on November 20!
Come for the best gift book recommendations in town. Feel a festive spirit with cocoa, cookies, and free gift-wrapping!
Admission to the Athenæum's first floor is free for this special event.
September 21, 2021
Dante in Boston marks Dante Alighieri's 700th anniversary
On view through December 30, 2021
The Athenæum presents highlights from the special collections related to Dante Alighieri, celebrating a major anniversary of one of the great poets of world literature with a display of seven centuries of fine printing and rarely-seen books.
June 21, 2021
The Terra Foundation for American Art has awarded $75,000 from its Re-envisioning Permanent Collections grant program to the Boston Athenæum. The award will support the reinstallation of artworks on the building’s first floor, which is open to the public.
The Athenæum will reinterpret and reimagine the display of the permanent collections, bringing forward a diverse selection of artworks including more work by and of women and people of color. The reinstalled first floor will tell a broader story about American history and the history of art, drawing on the wealth of the Athenæum’s lesser-known, historically significant, and recently acquired holdings.
April 16, 2021
In Memoriam: Rodney Armstrong, Director and Librarian, 1973-1996
With sadness, the Boston Athenæum announces the passing of longtime Director and Librarian Rodney Armstrong. His tenure at the BA, fondly remembered by so many in our community, extended for 23 years, from 1973 through 1996...
News Archive
June 3, 2020
The events of the past nine days, since the killing of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis, have been emotionally devastating. This moment follows the tragic deaths of too many other African American people who have died in days and centuries past because of their race. I’m writing today to acknowledge the pain being felt in our Athenæum community, in Boston, and across the United States....
May 1, 2020
Leah Rosovsky Appointed Stanford Calderwood Director of the Boston Athenæum
The Boston Athenæum announces the appointment of Leah Rosovsky as Stanford Calderwood Director, becoming the seventeenth leader in the Athenæum’s 213-year history. Rosovsky, who served as Vice President for Strategies and Programs at Harvard University until 2019, will assume her role at the Athenæum later this month.
March 2020
COVID-19 response
The Athenæum closed temporarily due to the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak.
February 7, 2020
Athenæum makes historic Harriet Hayden Albums available to community of Boston and beyond
- Photo: Virginia L. Molyneaux Hewlett Douglass, the wife of Frederick Douglass, Jr., son of the great orator and abolitionist, and daughter of Aaron Molyneaux Hewlett, director of the Harvard gymnasium and the university’s first African American staff member
- Photo: Robert Morris, the first Black lawyer to represent a client in an American court
- Photo: An inscription by Robert Morris in the albums
- Photo: Frances Clayton, who fought alongside her husband after enlisting in the Union Army as a man under the alias “Jack Williams.”
- Photo: Theo Tyson of the Athenaeum and Rev. Jeffrey Brown of Twelfth Baptist Church looking at the Harriet Hayden Albums
- Photo: Exterior of the album given to Harriet Hayden by Robert Morris
January 21, 2020
Athenæum receives $182,500 National Endowment for the Humanities grant for conservation lab
- Photo: Chief Conservator Dawn Walus, in lab coat, with her team. (credit: Boston Athenæum)
- Photo: Boston City Councilor Andrea Campbell and staffers examine a special collections item at the Athenæum. (credit: Boston Athenæum)
- Photo: From the special collections, a 2002 fine press edition of Five Poems by Toni Morrison, with silhouettes by Kara E. Walker, designed by Peter Rutledge Koch. (credit: Boston Athenæum)
- Photo: From the special collections, bound volumes of William Lloyd Garrison's anti-slavery newspaper, The Liberator (1831-1865). (credit: Boston Athenæum)
- Photo: A volume from King's Chapel Library with stamp, "De Biblioteca de Boston" (credit: Boston Athenæum)
- Photo: Creating the replica cabinet, spring 2019 (credit: Current Projects)
- Photo: Curator of Rare Books and Head of Special Collections John Buchtel with the King's Chapel Library Collection (Credit: Boston Athenæum)
August 25, 2017: Boston Athenæum Exhibition, Thomas Buford Meteyard (1865-1928): Travels through Impressionism, Is First in an American Museum to Showcase Work of Important American Impressionist, Opening October 25
March 16, 2017: Boston Athenæum to Showcase Local Contemporary Artists in New England on Paper: Contemporary Art in the Boston Athenæum's Prints & Photographs Collections, Opening April 6
February 17, 2017: Boston Athenæum Welcomes Acclaimed Children's Book Author-Illustrator and Fine Artist Duo Oliver Jeffers and Sam Winston
January 16, 2017: Landmark Gift of WWII Graphic Arts Collection by Athenæum Proprietor Richard W. Cheek Enhances Institution’s Collection of Wartime Visual Materials
November 8, 2016: Boston Athenæum Hosts Pulitzer Prize-Winning American Composer and Pianist Yehudi Wyner for Celebratory Concert on Monday, November 21
September 30, 2016: Daniel Chester French: The Female Form Revealed opens to the public in the Athenæum's Norma Jean Calderwood Gallery on Friday, October 7
March 29, 2016: Collecting for the Boston Athenæum in the 21st Century: Prints & Photographs opens to the public in the Athenæum’s Norma Jean Calderwood Gallery on Wednesday, April 6
February 17, 2016: The Proprietors of the Boston Athenæum Elect John S. Reed as 23rd President of the Board of Trustees
October 28, 2015: Collecting for the Boston Athenæum in the 21st Century: Maps, Charts, & Plans, opens to the public on Tuesday, November 3
January 22, 2015: American Neoclassic Sculpture at the Boston Athenæum Opens February 26; Leading Collection Exhibited Together for the First Time
News Release
Images from the Exhibition
August 19, 2014: Over Here: World War I Posters From Around the World opens at the Boston Athenæum September 10, 2014
