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Bathens
The building directly behind Paul Revere and extending to the
right corner is the prestigious Boston Athenaeum. Founded in 1807,
this private library is a treasure trove not just of books but
also works of art from the likes of Chester Harding, Gilbert
Stuart, Daniel Chester French and many others.
Former members
include Ralph Waldo Emerson, Daniel Webster, Oliver Wendell Holmes
Sr., Henry David Thoreau, John Kennedy and James Cole. (OK, I am
James Cole and thus admit that placing my name in the anchor
position of former members was a shameless way to associate myself
with those world-renown personas but, until I fork out the cash to
join again, the fact remains…I am a former member.)
Current members
David McCullough ("John Adams" "Truman") Doris Kearns Goodwin
("The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys") and Ken Burns ("Civil War"
mini-series) did a large amount of their research within this
historical edifice. A majority of George Washington's personal
library reside here while, on the other end of the spectrum, a
book with a cover made of human skin (yikes!) from a convicted
murderer also makes it's home here.
Speaking of
George Washington, for decades the Athenaeum was the home of the
famous unfinished 1796 Gilbert Stuart painting of the first
President. You know the painting. In fact chances are you are
carrying a copy right now since the Stuart portrait is to be found
printed on every US dollar bill.
The Athenaeum acquired the
painting (along with the similarly unfinished Martha Washington
companion) for $1,500 three years after Stuart’s 1828 death.
In 1980 the paintings were sold for $2,500,000 under a
unique joint-ownership agreement between the Museum Of Fine Arts
here in Boston and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC,
with the paintings residing three years in one institution, then
three years in the other, in perpetuity.
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