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Greetings,
By now you should have received your Winter/Spring 2010 list of programs. If you have not, please either e-mail or call us so that we can send another out to you. I just want to clarify one item on the schedule where we have been receiving questions. Beginning with this season, we are initiating fees for non-members who want to attend our programs. Now, for most of you this does not pose any problems, but I do want to make sure that you understand that your membership (stockholding, subscriber, or associate) is a household membership. Therefore, if you are planning on bringing along a spouse, a child, a sibling, etc., who lives at the same address, you do not have to pay the extra fee. They are part of your household and, therefore, part of your membership. Please call if you have any questions.
A second point that I want to discuss is our upcoming book sale. We have been gathering books (both hardcover and paperback) for the sale, but we always need more. If you have books that you would like to contribute, please contact us; and we will arrange for a pickup. This will represent a charitable contribution to the Athenaeum, and you should receive a tax deduction for the gift.
Thank you!
Reminder:
The Athenaeum will be closed on February 15th for President's Day.
Banner Image:
Terrestrial Globe manufactured by Thomas Malby & Son (London, c.1867).
New Books for February
Thomas Fleming Lecture and Book Signing
 Tom
Fleming returns to the Athenaeum with his latest. Here he examines the
women who were at the center of the lives of the founding fathers. Fleming
takes us through a great deal of early American history, as his founding fathers
strove to reconcile the private and public, often beset by a media every bit as
gossip seeking and inflammatory as ours today. He also offers a powerful
look at the challenges women faced in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth
centuries.
February
24, 2010
5:30 PM
Free
to Members (Contact Susan Gallo at 215-925-2688 or sgallo@PhilaAthenaeum.org
to RSVP)
All
others $10, Register Here
Wi-Fi
Now Available In the Reading Rooms
 Wireless
internet access is now available in the Members' Reading Room, the Busch Room
and the Chess Room. Visit the circulation or reference desks to obtain the password.
Coming
Soon
 Inspired by the success of our “Enchanting Simplicity” exhibition showcasing children’s books in the Athenaeum collections, Claudia McGill has given the Athenaeum a collection of contemporary children’s books suitable for circulation. These will be shelved in the Reading Room once they are catalogued, and we encourage members with children or members with children visiting to come in and borrow a book. We are delighted to offer this service to our members and grateful to Claudia McGill and her family for thinking of us in this way.
New Book Available on Architect Albert W. Leh
 The Athenaeum is pleased to announce the publication of
A Living Legacy: Architecture of A.W. Leh, by Kenneth Raniere, which examines the career of a prolific early twentieth-century Lehigh Valley architect.
Much of Mr. Raniere’s research was conducted at the Athenaeum and features beautiful modern exterior and interior photographs of surviving Leh buildings and scores of architectural drawings reproduced from the Athenaeum’s extensive archive of Leh materials. The Athenaeum acquired the Leh Collection in 1984 from member, Myles Pettengill.
The book can be purchased from the Athenaeum's online
bookstore.
Member Critics
 Downey,
Kirstin. The Woman Behind the New Deal; The Life of Frances Perkins, FDR's Secretary of Labor and His Moral
Conscience.
Frances Perkins qualifies as the unsung hero of the New Deal and her story is
very relevant to today's politics. With the approval of President Roosevelt, she did the basic research, followed through and brought programs such as unemployment insurance, old age pensions, welfare, child labor laws and inspection of working conditions in mines and factories to fruition, after she became Labor Secretary in 1933, (the first woman appointee to a such a position). She was also involved in bringing about The Fair Labor Standards Act which brought about the minimum wage, the forty-hour workweek and paying for overtime. She was responsible for the enactment of all of the above while Franklin Delano Roosevelt took the credit. Universal Health Care was also on her agenda but WW
II intervened. There is more, including a very complicated and challenging personal life and her close relationship with FDR.
Author Kirstin Downey balances her subject's personal life and political perspective very well, as her journalistic experience and awards would indicate.
-Nancy Frenze
Do you
have a book that you loved (or hated), and would you be willing to share that
opinion on the Athenaeum e-newsletter? If so, please send your short essay
to sltatman@philaathenaeum.org.
Save
the Date:
February
6: First Saturday, Athenaeum open, 10:00am-2:00pm
February
10: Socrates Cafe, 11:00am.
February
24: Thomas Fleming, The Intimate Lives of the Founding Fathers. Lecture
and Book Signing, 5:30pm
March
1: Coffee Day in Members' Reading Room
See
the Event
Calendar for details and additional
events.
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