What is an Athenaeum?

 In this summer’s continuing series of posts about Rhode Island history, today’s post is about the athenaeums of Rhode Island. If you have never heard the term “athenaeum” before, it is really just an old and fancy way to say “library.” 

New England has several well-known libraries with the term “athenaeum” in the title. Massachusetts has at least four, the Berkshire Athenaeum, the Westfield Athenaeum, the Salem Athenaeum, and the Boston Athenaeum. New Hampshire has one called the Portsmouth Athenaeum and Vermont has one called the St. Johnsbury Athenaeum. 

Connecticut has the Wadsworth Athenaeum, but confusingly, it is an art museum, not a library. There is a library on the premises called Auerbach Art Library.

Rhode Island has two institutions with athenaeum in the title. The Providence Atheneaum is located a block or so from the RI Supreme Court and is one of the oldest libraries in the country. Well known authors, creators, historians, and intellectuals often visit to give talks and those talks are then available on their website. For a real treat, see this talk by the creators of the podcast Crimetown, Marc Smerling and Zac Stuart-Pontier.

The other athenaeum in Rhode Island is the Redwood Library & Atheneaum in Newport. According to its website, the library began in colonial Rhode Island, “[t]he Company of the Redwood Library was established in 1747 by Abraham Redwood and 45 colonists with the goal of making written knowledge more widely available to the Newport community.” In 1962, the Redwood was designated a National Historic Landmark. For more information about the Redwood, see https://redwoodlibrary.org/.