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In this issue:
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Membership · New Books · Donate · Current Exhibition · Event Calendar |
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Banner Image: Engraving of The Athenaeum from Gleason's Pictorial Drawing Room Companion, 8/15/1854. Hand colored at a later date.
Thank You, Volunteers! Beginning this fall, the Athenaeum will open on both First and Third Saturdays from 11am to 3pm. We can do this because willing volunteers have come forward again to help staff maintain these hours. Our initial Third Saturday opening will happen on September 15.
Exhibition Opening- "Three Generations of Book Collectors: The Evan Turner Gift at The Athenaeum of Philadelphia"
This exhibition is curated
by Samuel A. Streit, retired Brown University Special Collections
Librarian, and Daniel H. Traister, recently retired Curator for
Research Services at the University of Exhibition Dates: September
7-November 7, 2012 Gallery Talk, November 3, 1:00pm. RSVP to Susan Gallo at 215-925-2688 or sgallo@philaathenaeum.org
New Research Tool At The Athenaeum The Athenaeum is pleased to offer members and on-site researchers a new service. The American Antiquarian Society (AAS), the premier library documenting the life of America's people from the Colonial Era through the Civil War and Reconstruction provides digital access to the most comprehensive collection of American periodicals published between 1691 and 1877. Grace Gary, Nemours: A Portrait of Alfred I. DuPont’s House, by Gary Young and Grace Gary, with Photography by Cotton Coulson. 
Wednesday, September 19, 2012, 5:30 PM Nemours Mansion and Gardens spreads over 222 acres and represents the home of Alfred I. DuPont, a multi-talented philanthropist and heir to the DuPont fortune. The mansion and gardens, designed by the New York office of Carrere & Hastings in 1909 and recently restored by John Milner Architects, Inc., has been compared to such estates as the Breakers in Newport, RI, and Hearst Castle in California. Grace Gary is executive director of Nemours Mansion and Gardens. Free for Athenaeum Members. RSVP to Susan Gallo at 215-925-2688 or sgallo@philaathenaeum.org all others $10, online payment Donald W. Linebaugh, The Springfield Gas Machine: Illuminating History and Leisure, 1860s-1920s. 
Friday, September 21, 2012, 3:30 PM Just after the Civil War the Springfield Gas Machine brought changes and greater ease to both commercial and domestic gas lighting in buildings outside of a city gas works. For Philadelphians who wanted to move to the country, the Springfield Gas Machine, a self-contained unit, helped the new owners find modern comforts. On the industrial side, the Springfield Gas Machine offered a more efficient production which allowed longer work hours. Using newspapers, magazine articles, advertisements, patents and mail-order catalogs, Donald Linebaugh, Asssociate Professor in the School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation at the University of Maryland and Director of the University’s historic preservation program, illuminates this important part of the history of lighting in the United States. He is also the author of The Man Who Found Thoreau: Roland Wells Robbins and the Rise of Historical Archaeology in America and co-editor of Saugus Iron Works: The Roland W. Robbins Excavations, 1948–1953. Free for Athenaeum Members. RSVP to Susan Gallo at 215-925-2688 or sgallo@philaathenaeum.org all others $10, online payment Frank Furness Historical Marker Dedication
A nationally influential architect, Frank Furness's forceful designs and bold use of industrial materials helped shape American modernism. His works include the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and the University of Pennsylvania Library. Furness served with distinction in the Civil War and is the only American architect of note to win the Congressional Medal of Honor. 
When:
Friday, September 14,
2012 Where: Peirce College Reception to follow RSVP by Friday Sept 7th, to Nancy Thorne at 215-898-8323 or nthorne@design.upenn.edu 2012 Peterson Prize Winners Announced
Click here for the list of winners Hours: Monday-Friday: 9:00am-5:00pm First and Third Saturdays: 11:00am-3:00pm (excluding July and August)
219 S. 6th Street Philadelphia, PA 19106 215-925-2688
The building is accessible to persons with disabilities. Group tours and research visits are by appointment only.
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On Saturday, September 29, 2012, the Athenaeum will open its doors along with 1,400
other participating venues for the eighth annual Museum Day Live! This immensely successful program encourages learning and the spread of knowledge nationwide. Museum Day Live! tickets are available to download at
www.Smithsonianmag.com/museumday. Visitors who present the Museum Day Live! ticket will gain free entrance for two at participating venues for one day only. One ticket is permitted per household, per email address. For a list of participating museums and cultural institutions,
Evan
Turner’s gift to the Athenaeum consists primarily of books acquired over
a forty year period, beginning in the 1930s by Albert Morton Turner. The
collection reflects Turner’s personal interest in classical and
Renaissance authors, fine printing and the book arts, book provenance,
and, in particular English literature. Although the Turner Collection
owes it breadth and depth to Albert Morton Turner, it also represents
the collecting interests of prior generations of the Turner/Bierstadt
family, an educated, intellectually engaged, but not wealthy New England
family of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
The
Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission together with The Athenaeum
of Philadelphia, The Philadelphia Chapter of the Society of
Architectural Historians and AIA Philadelphia cordially invite you to
attend the dedication of an official State Historical Marker
commemorating Frank Furness (1839-1912).
A
student competition of measured drawings, the Charles E. Peterson Prize
is presented jointly by the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) of
the National Park Service, The Athenaeum of Philadelphia, and the
American Institute of Architects. The annual competition, currently in
its 30th year, honors Charles E. Peterson, FAIA (1906-2004), founder of
the HABS program, and is intended to heighten awareness about historic
buildings in the United States and to augment the HABS collection of
measured drawings at the Library of Congress. In addition to generating
over 5,800 sheets of drawings for the collection to date, the
competition presents awards totaling $7,500 to the winning student
teams. Drawings must be of a building that has not been recorded by HABS
through measured drawings, or be an addendum to existing set of HABS
drawings that makes a substantial contribution to the understanding of
the significance of the building.
Location: