U1 Library Letter from the Boston Ulthenteum
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ATHE ITE u1 Library The Boston Letter from ulthenteum No. 54 MAY 1952 The Academy and the Athenceum N the Newspaper Reading Room of the Boston Athenreum, a shabby little sign that has rested for many years against an ankle of the Disco bolus states: EARLY DAYS OF THE TELEPHONE After experiments in the Autumn of 1875 members of THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES in this room on May 10, 1876 listened to music by ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL rendered on a parlor organ at BosTON UNIVERSITY 20 Beacon Street The circumstances that led to this event are hardly obvious to the casual observer, for few of our readers are aware that the American Academy of Arts and Sciences shared premises with the Athenreum for more than three quarters of a century. The Academy, which is the oldest learned society in New England, was established in 1780. It deposited its books with the Boston Athenreum in April 1817, when this library was still quartered in the Amory house in Tremont Street, overlooking King's Chapel Burying Ground. When the Athenreum moved to the house of James Perkins in Pearl Street, the Academy moved \Vith it, on the terms cited in the following agree ment. An agreement between the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Proprietors of the Boston Athenreum, relative to the deposit of the Library of the Academy in an apartment of the Athenreum. The American Academy agrees to deposit its Library in the North East Apart ment on the principal floor of the Athenreum in Pearl Street there to remain, sub ject to the future disposition of the Academy, under the general care and super intendance of the Standing Committee and Librarian of the Athenreum;-subject always to the supervision of the Librarian of the Academy;-the books to be used by the Proprietors and Subscribers to the Athenreum, but never to be carried out of the house, in which they are deposited, except by the members of the Acad- erny, who shall have right to free access to the room, in which the Library is kept at all times, when the same is open to the Proprietors and Subscribers, and to the exclusive use of the same at their stated and other meetings. The Academy is to pay to the Athenreum Fifty Dollars each year for the privi lege of the apartment, and to provide their own light and fire. Either party is to be at liberty to terminate this agreement, whenever it pleases, on giving one month's notice to the other. The Proprietors of the Boston Athenreum agree to the preceding terms, it be ing understood that they are not to be considered as indemnifying the American Academy for any loss which may happen in any way whatever;-that they are not bound to take care of the Books of the Academy, other than such as they bestow upon their own Books;-and that their Officers shall have the charge of the Apartment, which is hereby assigned to the Academy. Signed on behalf of the Academy JOHN T. KIRKLAND JOSIAH QUINCY President Signed on behalf of the Athenreum PETER A. THACHER THEODORE LYMAN, JR. June 1, 1823 SAML SWETT When, in 1849, the present building at 1 Olh Beacon Street was occupied, provision was made for the Academy in the room to the left of the entrance, on the first floor, that is now the Newspaper Reading Room. At that time the room contained not one gallery, but two, reached by a spiral iron staircase, and was packed full of the books and learned serial publications belonging to the Academy. It was used, as well, by various other learned societies. The American Antiquarian Society, founded by Isaiah Thomas in 1812, although its headquarters are at Worcester, has for the convenience of its members held its spring meeting in Boston. From 1847 to 1899 it met in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences room. The Colonial Society of Massachusetts, after its foundation in 1893, also held n1any meetings here until 1899, when the Academy, needing more space, moved to quarters of its own elsewhere. A few years ago, changing circumstances caused the American Academy of Arts and Sciences to dispose of the greater part of its library, which was not sufficiently used to warrant its retention in the Academy's present building at 28 Newbury Street. There was, however, considerable reluctance to part with three fine sets of books that had particular interest of association. Consequently the superb 32-volume folio set of the Description des arts et metiers, jaite ou approuvee par MM. de l'.Academie des Sciences (Paris, 1761-1789), bequeathed by Benjamin Franklin, and two important collections of historical documents, Muratori's Rerum I talicarum scriptores (l\.1ilan, 1723-1751) and Byzantinte historite scriptores, Grace et La tine (Venice, 1729), given by John Adams, were permanently deposited by the Academy in the Boston Athenreum. When this was mentioned in the 1947 Report of the Director and Li brarian, the hope was expressed that it might prove possible in the near future to dis- play these bookc; in the Ne\vspaper Reading Room, as a permanent memorial of the long association between the Academy and the Athenreum. It unfortunately proved difficult to find a suitable exhibition case for the purpose until this spring, when Mif,f, Dorothy S. F. M. Codtnan gave four large, handsome, glass-fronted bookcases, built some years ago from a Thomas Chippendale design. One of these, containing the books of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, is now installed in the News paper Reading Room. The other three have been placed on the fourth floor of the library, near the entrance to the Trustees' Room, where they will prove useful for the exhibition of a major portion of the Athenreum's magnificent collection of Confederate imprints, which have long lurked in the obscurity of the Locked Room. Although the libraries of George Washington and John Quincy Adams arc on permanent display in the Trustees' Room, and the King's Chapel Library is accom modated in a case of its own on the third floor, the majority of the most important holdings of the Athenreum are not ordinarily visible except in temporary exhibitions on the second floor, or when called for by readers who wish to consult them. It is there fore extraordinarily pleasant to be able to place the Confederate collection where it can be seen, and to be able to carry out the exhibition of the American Academy bookf, that has been in mind for the past five years. LATEST ACCESSIONS WITH OTHERS NOT PREVIOUSLY LISTED Art BARR, A. H. Matisse. MACKENZIE, CoMPTON. The House of Coal BENTON, T. H. An Artist in America (New port, 1750-1950. edition). MAURICHEAU-BEAUPRE, CHARLES. Palais et CHAMBERLAIN, SAMUEL. Beauport at Jardins du Grand Siecle. Gloucester. • MUNNINGS, Sir ALFRED. The Second Burst. DAVIDSON, Jo. Between Sittings. MUNSTERBERG, Huoo. Twentieth Century GIEDION, SIGFRIED, editor. A Decade of New Painting. Architecture. NEWTON, ERIC. Tintoretto. HOFER, PHILIP. Baroque Book Illustration. PEVSNER, NIKOLAUS. High Victorian Design. HUBBARD, H. A Hundred Years of British RACKHAM, BERNARD. Early Staffordshire Pot- Painting, 1851-1951. tery. LEAR, EDWARD. Journals; a Selection. READ, HERBERT. The Philosophy of Modern Art. LISTER, RAYMOND. The British Miniature. WHITE, N. C. Abbott H. Thayer. Autobiography and Letters ADAMS, HENRY. Selected Letters. DILLON, Viscount. Memories of Three Wars. ANGELL, Sir NORMAN. After All. DRAGONETIE, JESSICA. Faith Is a Song. BAX, CurFORD. Some I Knew Well. EISENHOWER, D. D. What Eisenhower BEETHOVEN, L. voN. Letters, Journals and Thinks. Conversations. EVERITT, C. P. The Adventures of a Treasure BELFRAGE, BRUCE. One Man in His Time. Hunter. BIBESCO, Princess. La Vie d'une Amitie. GERARD, Father. The Autobiography of an BRECKINRIDGE, MARY. Wide Neighborhoods. Elizabethan. CAMPBELL, RoY. Light on a Dark Horse. HENREY, RoBERT. Paloma. CRONIN, A. J. Adventures in Two Worlds. HIGGINSON, A. H. An Old Sportsman's rvrem DAWSON, PETER. Fifty Years of Song. ories, 1876-1951. DE MILLE, A. G. Dance to the Piper. HOBHOUSE, STEPHEN. Forty Years and an DICKENS, MoNICA. My Turn to Make the Tea. Epilogue. ILEANA, Princess. I Live Again. RITCHIE, Lady. Thackeray's Daughter. JACOB, NAOMI. Robert, Nana and- Me. ROBINSON, Sir C. L. The Last of the Irish JORDAN, D. B. Mrs. Jordan and Her Fantily. R. M.s. KAZIN, ALFRED. A Walker in the City. ROSS, MARGERY, editor. Robert Ross, Friend of KIMBROUGH, EMILY. Through Charley's Friends. Door. STANHOPE, Lady H. L. The Nun of Lebanon. LANGNER, LAWRENCE. The Magic Curtain. STARK, FREYA. Beyond Euphrates. MARSHALL, A. C. The Magic of my Youth. SUARES, A., and CLAUDEL, P. Correspond MARTINDALE, LouiSE. A Woman Surgeon. ance, 1904-1938. MATSUOKA, YoKo. Daughter of the Pacific. SYSONBY, Lord. Recollections of Three Reigns. PAUL, LESLIE. Angry Young Man. WRIGHT, CoBINA. I Never Grew Up. Belles Lettres, Music and Theatre ABRAHAM, G. E. H., editor. Schumann. JACOBS, ARTHUR. Gilbert and Sullivan. BIANCOLLI, L., editor. The Analytical Con- LALOU, RENE. Le Theatre en France depuis cert Guide. 1900. BARZUN, JACQUES, editor. Pleasures of Music. McGINLEY, PHYLLis. A Short Walk from the BENTLEY, E. C. Clerihews Complete. Station. BOSWELL, JAMES. Boswell's Column. McNAIR, R. J. Square Dance! BRYANT, ARTHUR. Historian's Holiday. MAURIAC, FRAN~OIS. Le Feu sur la Terre. DAVIDSON, A. T. Church Music. MOORE, MERRILL. Case-Record from a Sonne- GIDE, ANDRE. My Theatre. torium. GOSS, M . B. Modern Music-Makers. The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes. HEARD, GERALD. Gabriel and the Creatures. SHORT, ERNEST. Sixty Years of Theatre. HINDEMITH, PAUL. A Composer's World. SHURCLIFF, A.