Fodor's Expert Review Boston Athenæum

One of the oldest libraries in the country, the Athenæum was founded in 1807 from the seeds sown by the Anthology Club (headed by Ralph Waldo Emerson's father). It moved to its imposing, present-day quarters—modeled after Palladio's Palazzo da Porta Festa in Vicenza, Italy—in 1849. Membership in this cathedral of scholarship has been passed down for generations, but the Athenæum is open in part to the public. The first floor houses an art gallery with rotating exhibits, marble busts, porcelain vases, lush oil paintings, and books. The children's room features secluded nooks overlooking the Granary Burying Ground. To see one of the most marvelous sights in Boston academe, take a guided tour, which visits the fifth-floor Reading Room. Among the Athenæum's holdings are most of George Washington's private library, as well as King's Chapel Library, sent from England by William III in 1698. With a nod to the Information Age, an online catalog contains records for more than 600,000 volumes.