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ATHENÆUM JANUARY–FEBRUARY 2020

LOST GENERATION RELICS

Harry and ’s book safe, with a hollowed-out center, was made from a 1727 leather-and-gilt volume of French legal writings, Pierre Brillon’s Dictionnaire des arrêts. Special Collections: The Crosbys and the

In recent years, Trustee Emeritus John Everets and his wife, Cynthia, made a significant gift to the BA: materials from the Black Sun Press, established by American expatriates in 1920s . Black Sun’s sumptuous, handmade books feature the early writings of contemporaries including D. H. Lawrence, , , and .

Black Sun’s founders, Harry and Caresse Crosby, joined the “” in after the First World War. Their lives were shaped dramatically by the conflict: Harry, a son of an elite Boston family, narrowly escaped death when the ambulance he was driving was blown ; he saved a companion’s life. Caresse (then known as Mary Phelps Peabody) was married to an Army officer and heavy drinker. When they met on a group outing to Nantasket Beach in 1920, Harry and Caresse fell in love, and soon abandoned the expectations of their families and Boston society to live decadently for poetry and art.

While deep within our hearts shall smoulder Strange fire growing young not older. “ January 2020 marks a half-century since Caresse’s death, and 90 since Harry took his own life, but their creative works endure. The Everets’s gifts include dozens” of rare books, plus some of the Crosbys’ unusual belongings, shown here. MEMBER HOURS Mon–Thu 9 am–8 pm Fri–Sat 9 am–5 pm FAR RIGHT | The couple’s “gold cross” bookplate

FAR RIGHT | An embosser from Black Sun Press (shown in the VISITOR HOURS book safe, above) produces a simple impression of a sun. Tue 12–8 pm RIGHT | Artist May den Engelsen, who lived on a houseboat Wed–Sat 10 am–4 pm moored at the Pont Neuf in Paris, painted watercolor portraits of the Crosbys in 1927. The Gordon Newspaper Room LEFT | The Black Sun Press issued this card seeking translators of opens at 8:30 am on weekdays. French poet .

FROM MARY TO CARESSE Born Mary Phelps Jacob, Caresse took her new name at Harry’s suggestion. She was already CONTACT an innovator, having patented a design in 1914 (she passed up millions, selling it to the www.bostonathenaeum.org Warner Brothers Company). She championed the 20th century avant-garde for 617.227.0270 decades through her editorial activities. After World War II, she founded Women Against War and established an artist’s colony at a 16th-century castle north of . 1 DIRECTOR’S NOTE

Dear Members,

One of the aspects that makes me eager to go to work every day as the Boston Athenæum’s interim director is the positive feedback I hear from members. People have a deep-seated affection for the Athenæum and all of its collections, services, and programs.

When I ask members what they like about the Athenæum, responses include participating in the Proust group, “curios in every corner,” “staff research and friendship,” and even “I thought I had died and gone to heaven.”

The value proposition of membership is clear when compared to other membership organizations, group working spaces, and cultural institutions. The value is exponential when our collections of rare books, maps, manuscripts, paintings, photographs, and other resources are considered.

A strong membership base is vital for the Athenæum to continue to thrive and respond to your sweep of ideas and interests. Strength is in numbers. Please take the opportunity in the new year to encourage your friends and colleagues to experience all the library has to offer by becoming members. Together we can realize the Athenæum’s potential as an intellectual home for all of us.

Amy E. Ryan Stanford Calderwood Director

THE MISSION of the Boston Athenæum is to engage all who seek knowledge by making accessible our library’s collections and spaces, thereby inspiring reflection, discourse, creative expression, and joy.

by the numbers OCTOBER 2019

ORDERED/ACQUIRED 105 items

ASSISTED 230 reference inquiries

CATALOGED 267 new circulating items 6 new special collections materials 35 already-held special collections materials Expansion Update CIRCULATED 1,092 books, including Work continues at 14 Beacon Street: demolition is being completed and preparations for the build-out 103 Children’s Library books have commenced. Director Amy Ryan and a tactical team of BA staffers are reviewing plans for furnish- ings and discussing how to extend top-notch programming and services to members throughout the new ATTENDANCE and updated spaces. Many employees will remain in 10½ after the expansion, including the circulation staff, reference and serials librarians, and the archivist, as well as the education, membership, security, 2,685 members and events teams. Members will continue to find librarians throughout the historic building. 118 members’ guests ABOVE | Assistant Facility Manager Nazrul Quadery stands in the future multi-purpose room. 310 visitors

Sharing Our Digital Collections PROGRAMS With the World 11 events 3 gallery talks for the Required Reading exhibition Last year, Athenæum librarians and interns (including Ryan Reed and Children’s Library programs Samantha Dodgen, right) cataloged approximately 3,100 items in Athena and 17 photographed over 10,000 images that were added to our Digital Collections, 14 public tours & 8 private tours each discoverable via the BA website. Your unrestricted Annual Fund donations help us provide access to and preserve our rare and historic ANNUAL FUND materials for our members and the world. $1,198,753 Make a donation today by contacting Dawna G. Burrus, Director of Annual in unrestricted funds raised in FY2019 Giving, by phone at 617-720-7629, or by email at [email protected]. You can also donate online at bostonathenaeum.org/support/make-gift. THANK YOU THANK YOU FOR YOUR GIFT. Make the Most of Your Membership

Do we have access to digitized newspapers? How do I search JSTOR? Who’s the person behind the Cutter system? How do I find a particular book—or a shelf-full?

As a membership library, the Athenæum offers the benefit of personalized librarian assistance. Members come in every day seeking answers to questions we are usually able to answer, either through materials in the building or online, SERVICES or via inter-library loan. for READERS Ask for information at the front or reference desks, and look for installments in the Ask a Librarian series, listed in our Events calendar online. Librarian Elizabeth O’Meara schedules these informative sessions once per month, and Helping members get what they want is our priority. no advance signup is required. Just show up and have your questions about I always learn something new from them, resources and benefits answered. “ and enjoy providing great service. RIGHT | Librarian Elizabeth O’Meara finds a requested book. ELIZABETH O’MEARA, REFERENCE LIBRARIAN” Private Events at Our Boston Landmark Left, the Long Room is decked out for a dinner event. Inset: our events staffers—Victoria O’Malley, Elsa Vernon, and Emmy Snyder—take a moment for a photo. The team balances our revenue goals with members’ needs for quiet and contemplation in the library, overseeing a select number of private events annually.

In the last fiscal year, rentals brought in more than $150,000, helping to offset the high costs of maintaining our Boston landmark. They ranged from an elaborate two- day Netflix shoot (those won’t happen very often) to the annual gathering of the Massachusetts Lafayette Society.

Help Build a Special Community

We’re growing, and you can help! Membership is open to all, and many members first visit with a friend. Our members tell us they value civic discourse and reading Community Conversations groups, an urban space for silence and reading, a community Members and Visitors Free of shared interests, and a gathering spot for those who love P libraries, card catalogs, wonderful events, and great To explore the variety and richness of “essential knowledge” and the ways it can be defined, conversations with authors and other members. our current exhibition, Required Reading: Reimagining a Colonial Library, presents titles selected by ten community partners. Join these discussions and share your thoughts. Choose an event on the pages that follow, and plan to bring a friend or colleague! PANEL DISCUSSION | with Chinese Historical Society of New England, Institute for Human Centered Design, and Women’s Foundation of Boston Wednesday, January 29, 6 pm MODERATOR: Cara Solomon, founder of Everyday Boston Members only TOPIC: What knowledge is necessary for people of different communities to work together? M P Open to the public Please join us. PANEL DISCUSSION | with Hebrew College, North Bennet Street School, and UMass Boston R Reception to follow Wednesday, February 5, 6 pm } MODERATOR: Rajini Srikanth, Dean of the Honors College at UMass Boston TOPIC: What qualifies as knowledge, and how is it transmitted? bostonathenaeum.org Athenæum Events JANUARY-FEBRUARY Registration is requested for all events. Register at bostonathenaeum.org or by calling 617-720-7612.

Member’s Choice (Anti) Suffrage The Trustees’ Room awaits you from 6:30 to 7:30 pm on the second Tuesday of each month. Members organize one-time discussions, host speakers, or (Anti) Suffrage is a series of programs commemorating the 100th anniversary offer presentations. To learn more and initiate an event, contact Director of of the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment. Join us to explore the Events Victoria O’Malley at [email protected] or 617-720-7667. complexity of the struggle to secure and protect voting rights for women and people of color in the past and today.

MEMBER’S CHOICE: The Brick Moon: An Exemplar of 19th-Century Scientific Imagination Tuesday, January 14, 6:30 pm LECTURE | with engineer and researcher Bob Gelinas M Members free

Influential Boston minister and man of letters Edward Everett Hale, who entered Harvard at age 13 and wrote or edited more than 60 works, published a short story about a colossal navigational satellite in 1869. Come hear about the dramatic tale, Hale’s vision of a brick-built Eye of the Expert: (Anti) Suffrage forerunner to twentieth-century technology, and materials from the BA’s Wednesday, January 8, 5:30 pm Members $25 and Visitors $35 shelves that illuminate the story. P R Join Athenæum staffers Kaelin Rassussen, Theo Tyson, and Elsa Fogg Vernon MEMBER’S CHOICE: as they explore materials in the library’s special collections that reflect the A Revolutionary Encounter in cases for and against universal suffrage, and also how nineteenth-and London twentieth-century ideas of race, class, and gender influenced opponents’ Tuesday, February 11, 6:30 pm and proponents’ positions on enfranchising women and people of color. LECTURE | with author Debbie Wiess A Century of Votes for Women: American Elections Since Suffrage M Members free Thursday, January 30, 6 pm BOOK TALK | with professor Christina Wolbrecht Two great figures from American P Members free and Visitors $15 Colonial history with vastly different perspectives had a chance encounter in London in the summer of 1773. How have women voted in the first 100 years since suffrage? What did they discuss? Author Debbie Wiess will present her new one-act Challenging the idea of “the woman voter,” Wolbrecht play about an historic meeting. contrasts portrayals of women voters by the press, politicians, and scholars with the actual voting patterns of different groups of women.

Dawson’s Fall BOOK TALK | We want to hear from you! Program Advisory Meeting with author Roxana Robinson Wednesday, January 15, 12 pm P Members and Visitors free Tuesday, January 14, 12 pm P Members free and Visitors free What topics, themes, and big ideas would you like to explore through with admission ($10) programs in the coming years? Join us and share your thoughts. Contact the Events department at 617-720-7600 or [email protected] with In the era of Reconstruction, an questions, or to register for this thrice-yearly discussion. Englishman with fierce opinions emigrates to the southern United States, struggling to navigate the Black Radical: The Life and nation’s new political, social, and Times of William Monroe moral landscape and his place Trotter within it. Inspired by a true story, BOOK TALK | with historian Robinson weaves fact with fiction Kerri K. Greenidge A Foray into Forgery in this rich historical novel. Monday, January 20, 2 pm and the Boston Athenæum’s P Members and Visitors free Role in Exposing It LECTURE | with independent Virtually unknown to scholar Bettina Norton the wider public, Thursday, January 9, 6 pm Wicked Pissed: New England’s William Monroe P Members free and Visitors $15 Most Famous Feuds Trotter was an BOOK TALK | with WCVB/5 unlikely American An over-zealous Boston art dealer in Chronicle reporter hero. He galvanized the 1920s started a rumor on false Ted Reinstein black working class attributions of 18th-century pastels. Thursday, January 16, 6 pm citizens to wield their political The saga is in Norton’s upcoming P R Members $15 and Visitors $20 book on the Salem portraitist, power despite the violent racism of Benjamin Blyth. Sometimes From sports to post-Reconstruction America. This mistaken for Copleys, Blyth’s politics to bitter seminal Bostonian’s prophetic yet portraits include the Massachusetts disputes over ultimately tragic life offers a link Historical Society’s iconic ones of boundary lines, between Frederick Douglass and the John and Abigail Adams. and everything in civil rights leaders of the 1960s. After the lecture, Athenæum between, New documents that filled out the England feuds story will be shown in the pepper the region’s Vershbow Room. history. Ted Reinstein, a native New Englander, television reporter, and local writer, brings to life many of the infamous fights, spats, and arguments that have, in many ways, shaped the area.

bostonathenaeum.org

Athenæum Events at a Glance

Colony JANUARY FEBRUARY 8 Wednesday | EYE OF THE EXPERT | (Anti) Suffrage, 5:30- 5 Wednesday | PANEL DISCUSSION | Hebrew College, North

First Lady 7:30 pm. Registration requested. Members $25 and Visitors Bennet Street School, and UMass Boston, Required Reading Community Conversations, 6-7 pm. Registration requested. Penelope $35 P R Members and Visitors free Winslow: P 9 Thursday | LECTURE | Bettina Norton, A Foray into Forgery Reconstruct- and the Boston Athenæum’s Role in Exposing It, 6-7 pm. 6 Thursday | BOOK TALK | Richard Bell, Stolen: Five Free Boys ing a Life Through Registration requested. Members free and Visitors $15 Kidnapped into Slavery and Their Astonishing Odyssey Home, P Material Culture 12-1 pm. Registration requested. Members free and Visitors 14 Tuesday | BOOK TALK | Roxana Robinson, Dawson’s Fall, free with admission ($10) P BOOK TALK | with 12-1 pm. Registration requested. Members free and Visitors Michelle Marchetti Coughlin free with admission ($10) 11 Tuesday | LECTURE | Russell Maret, The Making of P Tuesday, January 28, 12 pm Character Traits, 12-1 pm. Registration requested. Members 14 Tuesday |MEMBER’S CHOICE | Bob Gelinas, The Brick free and Visitors free with admission ($10) Members free and Visitors free P P Moon: An Exemplar of 19th-Century Scientific Imagination, with admission ($10) 11 Tuesday | MEMBER’S CHOICE | Debbie Wiess, A 6:30-7:30 pm. Registration requested. Members free M Revolutionary Encounter in London, 6:30-7:30 pm. 15 Wednesday | PROGRAM ADVISORY MEETING| 12-1 pm. Registration requested. Members free A member of the English gentry and M Registration requested. Members and Visitors free P wife to governor Josiah Winslow, 12 Wednesday | BOOK TALK | Alex Krieger, City on a Hill: Penelope Winslow was one of the 16 Thursday | BOOK TALK | Ted Reinstein, Wicked Pissed: Urban Idealism in America from the to the Present, most powerful women in the New England’s Most Famous Feuds, 6-7 pm. Registration 6-7 pm. Registration requested. Members $10 and Visitors $15 requested. Members $15 and Visitors $20 . But like many P R P R of her female contemporaries, she 20 Monday |BOOK TALK | Kerri K. Greenidge, Black Radical: 14 Friday | VOLUNTEER RECEPTION | 3-4:30 pm. By was largely forgotten. Though she The Life and Times of William Monroe Trotter, 2-3 pm. invitation only. RSVP by Friday, February 7. Members free Registration requested. Members and Visitors free authored few surviving documents, P M R she left behind a trove of physical 22 Wednesday | FILM SCREENING | Martini Movie Night: 19 Wednesday | PANEL DISCUSSION | in partnership with evidence— homes, possessions, and Singin’ in the Rain, 5:30-8 pm. Registration requested. the Network for Arts Administrators of Color, EmpowerHER: Members $40 Black Women in the Arts, 6-7 pm. Registration required. archaeological artifacts—that offer M R Members and Visitors free P R insight into her world. 28 Tuesday | BOOK TALK | Michelle Marchetti Coughlin, Plymouth Colony First Lady Penelope Winslow: Reconstruct- 26 Wednesday | LECTURE | Nancy Seasholes, The Atlas of ing a Life Through Material Culture, 12-1 pm. Registration Boston History, 12-1 pm. Registration requested. Members requested. Members free and Visitors free with admission free and Visitors free with admission ($10) P ($10) P 27 Thursday | MEMBER MEET AND GREET | 5:30-7:30 pm. 29 Wednesday | PANEL DISCUSSION | Chinese Historical RSVP by Thursday, February 20. Members free M R Society of New England, Institute for Human Centered Design, and Women’s Foundation of Boston, Required Read- ing Community Conversations, 6-7 pm. Registration request- Members only ed. Members and Visitors free M P P Open to the public 30 Thursday | BOOK TALK | Christina Wolbrecht, A Century of Votes for Women: American Elections Since Suffrage, 6-7 pm. R Reception to follow Registration requested. Members free and Visitors $15 P By providing this perforated event card in the newsletter, we’re able to reduce print and mailing costs.

City on a Hill: Urban Idealism The Atlas of Boston History in America from the Puritans LECTURE | with historical to the Present archaeologist Nancy Seasholes MARTINI MOVIE NIGHT: BOOK TALK | with Alex Krieger Wednesday, February 26, 12 pm Wednesday, January 22 Wednesday, February 12, 6 pm P Members free and Visitors free Reception at 5:30 pm; P R Members $10 and Visitors $15 with admission ($10) Movie screening at 6:15 pm Join us for a sweeping historical Few American cities M R Members $40 account of American cities and possess a history as Join us for the classic musical starring towns and the utopian aspirations rich, long, and and Debbie Reynolds! that shaped them--with one of fascinating as that With the Roaring Twenties comes America’s leading urban planners of Boston. Seasholes the transition from silent films to and scholars. illuminates the “talkies”—and Hollywood darlings city’s physical and The Making of Character Traits Don (Kelly) and Lina (Jean Hagen) Volunteer Reception economic development, LECTURE | with letter designer and are not adapting well. Enter Kathy Friday, February 14, 3 pm changing demography, and social printer Russell Maret (Reynolds), an aspiring actress with M R Members Free, By invitation and cultural life. a beautiful voice—hilarity and Tuesday, February 11, 12 pm only, RSVP by February 7 romance ensue. P Members free and Visitors free with admission ($10) Valentine’s Day is the perfect day to show our love for all of our Stolen: Five Free Boys Kid- ♥ dedicated volunteers! All volunteers napped into Slavery and Their For his latest artist’s book, Russell are invited to join us for a reception Astonishing Odyssey Home Maret spent a year teaching himself to celebrate their contributions to BOOK TALK | with professor to print intaglio, a technique differ- the Athenæum. Richard Bell ent from his past experiences using Thursday, February 6, 12 pm a letterpress. From wrestling with the creative and conceptual aspects EmpowerHER: P Members free and Visitors free to the numerous ups and downs of Black Women in the Arts with admission ($10) Members’ Meet and Greet learning a new medium, Maret will PANEL DISCUSSION | in partnership Thursday, February 27, 5:30 pm take us on his enlightening and often the Network for Arts Administrators In 1825 Philadelphia, Members Free; RSVP by humorous three-year journey. of Color M R five free black boys Wednesday, February 19, 6 pm February 20 fall into the clutches Members and Visitors free All members are welcome to this P R of the Deep South’s informal winter gathering! Enjoy most fearsome gang Only four percent of artworks in wine and cheese, meet others in of kidnappers and museums and galleries across the our energetic, intellectually cu- enslavers. The United States are created by black rious community, and greet new boys form a tight women. What is behind this lack of members. You will be invited to brotherhood as representation, and what is being explore unknown corners of the they struggle to free done to make the art world more building with fun activities and themselves, bring their captors to inclusive? Join us for a panel docent-led tours. As with most justice, and find their way home. M Members only Please discussion that will showcase the events, members are welcome Open to the public efforts of those who support black P join us. to bring guests; please list their women and their work in the arts. R Reception to follow} names at the time of registration. Found Treasures

COLLECTIONS TODD’S PATENT SILHOUETTE ALBUM

One of 1,758 silhouettes in a book made between 1800–1811 [?], Miss Brown is noted for her “good sense.” Itinerant artist Isaac Todd Sweetheart mine, photomechanical plied his trade from New York to card, 1907. Gift of Evelyn M. Coker, 1952. New Orleans. Purchase, Fine Arts Fund, 1920.

Allan Rohan Crite, The News, 1945. Gift of the artist, 1971.

Werner Pfeiffer.Hocus Pocus. Pear Whistle Press, 2012. Purchase, Nordell Fund, 2017. Events for Children, Tweens & Teens

LITTLE ONES TEENS Nursery Rhyme Time| ages 0-18 Registration required for all teen months programs. Fridays at 10:30 am Young Reader’s Book Group | Visitor Story Time | ages 0-5 ages 9-13 Fridays at 11:30 am Fourth Wednesdays at 6 pm P January 22: Greenglass House by Family Story Time| ages 0-5 Kate Milford Saturdays at 10:30 am February 26: Pie in the Sky by Remy Lai Stories, Songs, and Activities | ages 1-3 Teen Writing Group | ages 12-18 Thursdays at 10:30 am Last Saturdays at 3 pm January 25, February 29 Preschool Story Time | ages 2-4 Tuesdays at 10:30 am Friday DIY | First Fridays at 3:30 pm Lego®, Chess and Puzzle Club | January 3: Pompoms Spotted in the stacks! ages 5-8 February 7: Glass Magnets Select Saturdays at 2:30 pm January 4, 18 Comics Club | ages 9-13 February 1, 15 Third Thursdays at 6pm January 16, February 20 Independent Readers’ Book Group ages 6-8 SECOND SATURDAY Second Wednesdays at 5 pm PROGRAMS January 8: The Year of the Dog Story Club | ages 0-5 by Grace Lin Saturdays at 10:30 am February 12: Dory Fantasmagory January 11, February 8 by Abby Hanlon Free P Crafts | ages 0-5 Saturdays at 10:30 am January 11, February 8 Free P

SPECIAL CHILDREN’S LIBRARY EVENTS WILL RETURN IN MARCH. Our Vibrant Community

TOP | The library celebrated Veterans Day with speeches, music, and selections from the special collections. A crowd circulated in the Gordon Newspaper Reading Room to see interesting photographs, paintings, posters, artist’s books, and other items. NEH Chief Technical Services Librarian Will Evans chose a photograph depicting the USS Agamemnon on April 7, 1919, docking at Commonwealth Pier, Boston, carrying WWI “Doughboys” from the 102nd Infantry returning from France. The Agamemnon was formerly the SS Kaiser Wilhelm II, a German-built luxury liner that had been seized by the US upon entering the hostilities and subsequently converted to a troop transport.

LEFT | Member Deborah Peirce, who works at a downtown biotech company, made use of the BA’s Steinway piano to rehearse Rachmaninoff’s Vocalise Opus 32, No 14 with a colleague from work, Jim Campbell. “Making music is a satisfying part of my life, and the Rachmaninoff sounds so great in the Long Room,” she says. “I appreciate the Athenæum’s thoughtful attention to its members and their interests.” A favorite read: Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang

RIGHT | Canadian writer, editor, and translator Anna Prawdzik is an MFA candidate and creative writing instructor at Boston University. She works on her craft in an alcove on the library’s second floor. She’s lived, studied, and worked in eleven countries (most recently in Hong Kong), and met Stephen P. Hull, a writer, publisher, editor, and lifelong Bostonian, at Oxford University. Stephen is professor of practice and Director of the University of New Mexico Press. He recently completed a historical novel. PRINCE SMITH When Anna moved to Boston they joined the Athenæum, Staff Highlight SECURITY SUPERVISOR knowing it would be the perfect place for them to write. My days at the BA are always interesting. I enjoy patrolling: people don’t realize They feel inspired by the 19th-century reading rooms and how big the building is, and we check every part of it during our shifts. We look the presence of other creators and researchers—not to for potential problems, like water leaks or other hazardous situations, ensuring mention all the open-shelf books and magazines. “the well-being of collections and people. I’ve worked in security since I was 19, and managed security for the Liberty Hotel, among other employers. When I’m not at work, I’m listening to music and cooking amazing brunches and dinners with my family. Athenæum News ”

WE WELCOME: Kurt Grewal | Reader Services Intern Amy Ryan | Stanford Calderwood Director, Interim Greta Llanes Serrano | Von Clemm Fellow, Conservation Carly Stevens | Reader Services Intern

WE WISH DEPARTING COLLEAGUES WELL: Ismar Hochen | Building Caretaker Madison Mott | Development Coordinator Francis Wyman | Advancement Systems Manager

BOOK DISPLAYS

“NEW ON TWO” BOOK DISPLAYS: National Cheese Pizza Day, Michelangelo, Sandra Day O’Connor, United Farm Workers SQUAWK TO ME, O MUSE founded by Cesar Chavez; What is a Book; We Still Live Here: Fifth-floor denizens know a few Native Americans; Required Reading; Spooktober Boston birds well. Red-tailed Spotted in the stacks! hawks use our terrace railing as a Goldfinch tie-in; Fright fiction: perch for hunting in the Granary “WHILE YOU WAIT” DISPLAYS: Burying Ground, fluffing their gory, or psychological thriller? Hispanic Heritage Month; feathers, or inspiring great think- In Memoriam Harold Bloom ing. Member Rosemary Booth showed us a hawk in her notebook SPECIAL DISPLAYS: Nobel Prize winners for literature Olga while a bird sat outside the Tokarczuk and Peter Handke; In memoriam Jean Edward window of her alcove. Smith; and In memoriam Ann Rivers Siddons

DAY PASSES: Started in October, this pilot program has issued eight passes at $40 each, two of which have resulted in memberships. The initiative will be evaluated in early 2020.

YOUR COMMENTS ARE ALWAYS WELCOME: Please contact Maria Daniels, Director of Communications and Patron Services, at [email protected], 617-720-7690.

bostonathenaeum.org Gift: Naef Family in honor of the Urbanek Family, January 2016. After a February 1898 blizzard an unknown photographer documented the wintry city, including Commonwealth Avenue. Happy New Year! Boston, MA 02108 10½ Beacon Street BOSTON ATHEN Æ UM PERMIT NO. 20 NORWOOD, MA PAID U.S. POSTAGE NON-PROFIT

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