Athenæum

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04/12/2004: Arcanum Arcanum

Portsmouth NH Athenaeum
from Portsmouth Herald

Incorporated in 1817, the Portsmouth Athenaeum is the city's other library. Like the public library on Islington Street - a stone's throw from Market Square - the Athenaeum's contributions to city life have been considerable.
[...]
"The public library was founded in the 1890s," Hardiman said. "Before that, if you wanted more books ... than one person could afford ... you had to join a private library."
[...]
The Athenaeum's mission is to collect and preserve Portsmouth's history, and also to provide what Hardiman called "convivial interchange."

"It can be merriment, or it can be intellectual discussion," he explained.
[...]
"The idea is we don't want people to just read, we want people to read and discuss," said Hardiman.

Sounds like this athenaeum. except for the intellectual part. See the whole article below.



Athenaeum, the city's other library, quietly houses Portsmouth's history

By Nancy Cicco
ncicco@seacoastonline.com

PORTSMOUTH - With only 20 membership libraries left in the country, the Portsmouth Athenaeum is one of a dying breed.

But step inside the library, tucked away in the heart of Market Square, and the whispers of the past come alive.

Rare books, some dating back to the Middle Ages, call out from the shelves. Artifacts of everyday life from centuries ago on the Seacoast - antique fire buckets, a pamphlet from the 1791 opening of the Portsmouth Academy "for the instruction of young women" - await inspection.

"It's both a library and a museum," Portsmouth Athenaeum keeper Tom Hardiman said last week.

And the library has been kept up very well.

Incorporated in 1817, the Portsmouth Athenaeum is the city's other library. Like the public library on Islington Street - a stone's throw from Market Square - the Athenaeum's contributions to city life have been considerable.

The first version of the Athenaeum was nestled in the old Portsmouth Customs House on Penhollow Street. Located since 1823 in the Federalist-style red-brick building at 9 Market St., today's Athenaeum took root around a street-level reading room at that address dating back to 1808.

"The public library was founded in the 1890s," Hardiman said. "Before that, if you wanted more books ... than one person could afford ... you had to join a private library."

People are still joining today. Operated as a nonprofit membership library, the Athenaeum has 340 members, although the organization's bylaws allow up to 375. Individuals who want to join the library must be recommended by three current members.

"But that's not as onerous as it sounds," said Hardiman reassuringly. "We have a lot of extremely well-read people, a lot of people who are professors in either history or literature."

The Athenaeum's mission is to collect and preserve Portsmouth's history, and also to provide what Hardiman called "convivial interchange."

"It can be merriment, or it can be intellectual discussion," he explained.

Today, the private library boasts more than 40,000 volumes, many of them biographies, travel books or tomes about "arcane social history," said Hardiman.

Members pay the $175 annual membership fee, a paltry sum since that amount won't evencover the library's annual subscription costs for the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, according to Hardiman.

Some of the library's books are donated by members; another 300 to 400 books are purchased each year. Periodicals also line the shelves. The library operates on an annual budget about $200,000 and relies greatly on the work of volunteers.

The library's books circulate only among members, but nonmembers can partake in some of the library's other offerings. The Athenaeum is open to the public from 1 to 4 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays.

Museum exhibits also can be found in the library's hushed halls. Last week, treasures from the Portsmouth Historical Society were on display in the Athenaeum's Randall Gallery. The exhibit is one in a series showcasing the collections of other museums in Portsmouth that are closed to the public in the off-season.

There's plenty to see and plenty to read.

"The idea is we don't want people to just read, we want people to read and discuss," said Hardiman.