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Boston Athenaeum

The Boston Athenaeum, one of the oldest and most distinguished independent libraries in the United States, was founded in 1807 by members of the Anthology Society, a group of fourteen Boston gentlemen who had joined together in 1805 to edit The Monthly Anthology and Boston Review. Their purpose was to form "an establishment similar to that of the Athenaeum and Lyceum of Liverpool in Great Britain; combining the advantages of a public library [and] containing the great works of learning and science in all languages." The library and Art Gallery, established in 1827, were soon flourishing, and grew rapidly, both by purchase of books and art and by frequent gifts. For nearly half a century the Athenaeum was the unchallenged center of intellectual life in Boston, and by 1851 had become one of the five largest libraries in the United States. Today its collections comprise over half a million volumes, with particular strengths in Boston history, New England state and local history, biography, English and American literature, and the fine and decorative arts. The Athenaeum supports a dynamic art gallery, and sponsors a lively variety of events such as lectures and concerts. It also serves as a stimulating center for discussions among scholars, bibliophiles, and a variety of community interest groups.break

http://www.bostonathenaeum.org

Alanson B. Houghton: Ambassador of the New Era

Thu, Jan 26, 2006

Jeffrey J. Matthews provides a clear and concise account of Alanson B. Houghton's diplomatic experience during the 1920s, and consequently, a fresh assessment of US foreign policy during a pivotal decade in world history. Matthews explores why the United States failed to establish a stable world order during the New Era and additionally sheds light on the key historiographical themes of isolationism, new-imperialism, and corporations. American industrialist and politician Alanson B. Houghton, was the world's most influential diplomat during the "New Era" of the 1920s. Houghton, who served as ambassador to both Germany (1922 through 1925) and Great Britain (1925 through 1929), offers a unique window into the formation and implementation of American foreign policy. As the leading ambassador in Europe, he played a key role in the major diplomatic achievements of the era, including the Dawes Plan for reparations, the Locarno security treaties, and the Kellogg-Briand peace pact. While Houghton's significant contributions to these international accords are fully explored, the major theme of this book is his emergence as chief critic of US foreign policy within the Harding and Coolidge administrations.

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Future of America's Libraries

Thu, Jan 12, 2006

David Seaman argues that, despite predictions to the contrary, the library (both physically and virtually) continues to thrive as we settle into a new century. Even as libraries and readers consume more and more e-books, the number of paper books published in America last year hit a record 195,000, a 14 percent increase on the previous high of nearly 175,000 recorded the year earlier. On college campuses the "library as place" is reinventing itself as a social space and collaborative teaching environment. With our electronic journals, books, data sets, maps, and special collections objects growing ever more numerous, the notion of "place as library" is more and more prevalent. Now your library comes to you digitally in whatever place you are. Traditional library skills (cataloging, preservation, reference) are all being actively applied to our new hybrid print and electronic collections. Google and others are actively digitizing millions of books in our nation's libraries; digital paper is about to arrive, promising wholly new kinds of reading devices beyond the clumsy computers and handheld gadgets we now have with us; and we are collectively learning what it means to thrive in this rapidly changing environment.

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Landscape Design: New Garden Paradise

Thu, Jan 19, 2006

Dominique Browning takes us on a private tour of 35 of the world's most exquisite examples of cutting edge garden design. Astonishing in their range, vibrancy, and attention to detail, many of the featured gardens have never before been shown to the public. From the beautifully undulating hedges created by renowned Belgian designer Jacques Wirtz to the quiet power of Mia Lehrer's California, *The New Garden Paradise* offers readers an exclusive showcase of work, and an introduction to this astonishing world of landscape design. During the last decade, the gardening world has benefited from an exceptionally talented pool of landscape designers. In the midst of a healthy economy, the results in innovative garden design have been unrivaled in the past 100 years.

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Burying Sir Joshua Reynolds

Tue, Sep 27, 2005

Richard Wendorf discusses his new book on British art in the 18th and 19th centuries, an experiment in cultural history that combines analysis of specific artistic objects with an exploration of the cultural conditions in which they were created. In a lecture titled "After Sir Joshua" presented at the Athenæum eight years ago, Richard Wendorf investigated Sir Joshua Reynolds' legacy among the biographers, painters, and writers who followed him. In "Burying Sir Joshua," Wendorf provides an illustrated analysis of the various cultural factors that made the preparation for Reynolds' funeral in 1792 so difficult. Drawing on rarely seen archival material in the Hyde Collection at the Houghton Library, Wendorf charts the day-by-day events involving not only the recently deceased first president of the Royal Academy, but the artist Benjamin West, the architect Sir William Chambers, and the politician and writer Edmund Burke as well. "Burying Sir Joshua" is the final Athenæum lecture based on Wendorf's new book, *After Sir Joshua: Essays on British Art and Cultural History*.

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North Shore Boston: Country Houses of Essex County

Tue, Oct 4, 2005

Pamela Wilkinson Fox discusses more than 50 great houses in Boston's North Shore, designed by such architects as McKim, Mead & White, the Olmsted Brothers, Peabody & Stearns, and Ogden Codman. Since the mid-19th century, well-to-do Bostonians have fled the sweltering city streets for the cooling breezes, gently rolling hills, and rugged coastline of the fabled North Shore. From prestigious seaside communities such as Nahant, Marblehead, and Prides' Crossing to inland villages such as Wenham, Topsfield, and Ipswich, elegant country mansions arose, growing ever grander and more elaborate as the Age of Elegance progressed. Exclusive enclaves such as the Myopia Hunt Club, Eastern Yacht Club, and the Essex Country Club endowed the North Shore with a summer playground where Boston Brahmins mingled with Midwestern moguls (Henry Clay Frick, Richard Crane, and Edwin Swift), US Presidents (William Howard Taft and Calvin Coolidge), and artists and authors, including Maxfield Parrish, Edward Hopper, and Rudyard Kipling.

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How Free Blacks from Boston Changed America

Fri, Feb 24, 2006

Steven Kendrick and Paul Kendrick discuss the 1847 Massachusetts Supreme Court case of schoolgirl Sarah Roberts, and the lasting impact it made in American history. In 1847, on windswept Beacon Hill, a 5-year-old girl named Sarah Roberts was forced to walk past five white schools to attend the poor and densely crowded black school. Her father, Benjamin, sued the city of Boston on her behalf, turning to 24-year-old Robert Morris, the first black attorney to win a jury case in America. Together with young lawyer Charles Sumner, this legal team forged a powerful argument against school segregation that has reverberated down through American history in a direct legal line to Brown v. Board of Education. When the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled against Sarah Roberts, Chief Justice Shaw created the concept of "separate but equal", an idea that effected every aspect of American life until it was overturned 100 years later by Thurgood Marshall.

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Tremont Row: Artists' Daguerreotype Rooms

Tue, Feb 28, 2006

Grant Romer, curator of the Addison Gallery of American Art's "Daguerreotypes of Southworth & Hawes" exhibition, shows how new research has revealed that the architecture of the renowned Tremont Row studio played a highly significant role in the development of the distinctive style of the partnership. With ample illustrations, he recounts how this understanding of the physical space was reconstructed and demonstrates how much it has added to appreciating the artistry of these acknowledged masters of early photography. Romer's acclaimed exhibition "Young America: The Daguerreotypes of Southworth & Hawes" offers an unparalleled opportunity to view 150 perfectly illuminated daguerreotypes created by the famous Boston partnership of Albert Sands Southworth and Josiah Johnson Hawes. Through their lens we come face to face with great statesman, intellectuals, and celebrities, glimpse intimate family portraits, and examine the very bricks and clouds of the mid-19th century.

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Letters of a Portuguese Nun: 17th Century Forbidden Love

Tue, Feb 21, 2006

Myriam Cyr makes the case that the nun, Mariana Alcoforado, is indeed the author of one of the great literary masterpieces of the 17th century, *Portuguese Letters*. Mariana's story is one of the most moving in the history of forbidden love. In 1669, a Parisian bookseller published a slim volume called *Portuguese Letters*, which unveiled a love affair between a young Portuguese nun and a French officer that had occurred a few years earlier during a chaotic and war torn period in Portugal. The book contained passionate love letters the nun had written when the officer was forced to return to France. The letters took Paris by storm. They spoke of love in a manner so direct, so precise, and so raw that they sent shivers of recognition through the sophisticated strata of polite society. Through the centuries they have captured the hearts of poets and painters alike and retain all of their beauty and power today. Stendhal said "one has not loved until they have loved like the Portuguese nun." Braque and Matisse tried to imagine her. As remarkable as the letters are, they are rivaled by the mystery that surrounds them. Scholars debate whether a Portuguese nun could have written words of such stunning truth and beauty preferring to believe that a French aristocrat wrote the letters in answer to a dare.

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How Elizabeth Barrett Browning Saved My Life

Thu, Apr 27, 2006

Mameve Medwed discusses her new novel, a witty tale about love, loss, friendship, and self-discovery set in the appealingly absurd world of antiques and the people who buy, sell, and covet them. Thirty-three-year-old Abigail Randolph is having a tough time. Her beloved mother has recently died in an earthquake, the man she loves has left her for another woman, and the antiques business she started with her now ex-boyfriend is not doing so well. A Harvard dropout who has good-naturedly suffered through a lot of disappointments, Abby decides to put her trust in things that can't let her down: old books, chipped china, moth-eaten tablecloths, and the discarded and dented bits of other people's lives. But other people's lives, and not just their stuff, manage to intrude on her own life in surprising ways. Medwed briskly depicts the odd world of flea markets and tag sales, and makes of Abby's arduous liberation (not unlike the invalid Browning's), an adventure to which Jane Austen might have raised a celebratory glass of port.

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This Land: Development in America

Thu, May 4, 2006

Anthony Flint argues that, despite a modest revival in city living, Americans are spreading out more than ever into "exurbs" and "boomburbs" miles from anywhere, in big houses in big subdivisions. They cling to the notion of safer neighborhoods and better schools, but what they get is long commutes, crushing gas prices and higher taxes, and a landscape of strip malls and office parks badly in need of a makeover. *This Land* tells the untold story of development in America: how the landscape is shaped by a clash of political, economic, and cultural forces. It is the story of a burgeoning anti-sprawl movement, a 1960s-style revolution of New Urbanism, smart growth, and green building. And it is the story of landowners fighting back on the basis of property rights, with free-market libertarians, homebuilders, road pavers, financial institutions, and even the lawn-care industry right alongside them. The subdivisions and extra-wide roadways are encroaching into the wetlands of Florida, ranchlands in Texas, and the desert outside Phoenix and Las Vegas. But with 120 million more people in the country by 2050, will the spread-out pattern cave in on itself? Could Americans embrace a new approach to development if it made sense for them?

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