"With Eclat": The Boston Athenæum and the Origin of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Hina Hirayama, Associate Curator of Paintings & Sculpture
Winner of a 2013 Preservation Award from the Victorian Society in America / New England Chapter
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A detailed history of the Boston Atheuæum's extraordinary role in the founding of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Available:
- $30.00 to purchase at the Boston Athenæum
The Boston Athenæum played a vital role in the founding, in 1870, of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), and its continued support ensured the young institution’s survival. Established in 1807 as a membership library, the Athenæum also formed a distinguished art collection and inaugurated, as of 1827, a popular art gallery, which was, during the middle decades of the nineteenth century, the city’s most important public exhibition space. In the 1860s the Athenæum was a major participant in a movement to found an art museum in Boston. Once that goal was achieved when the museum was incorporated in 1870, the Athenæum remained an indispensable partner to the young institution, offering material, logistical, and moral support with abundant goodwill. When the MFA’s building opened in 1876, the Athenæum placed a major portion of its art collection there, and the two institutions continued to work together on the museum’s early exhibitions and acquisitions. The cooperation between the Athenæum and the MFA was remarkable in its intensity, intimacy, and informality, yet details of this historic partnership have never been fully documented or explained. Based on extensive new research in archival sources, With Éclat chronicles the two institutions’ joint endeavor in greater detail than ever before and places this extraordinary collaboration in the context of Boston’s changing cultural landscape.
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