Fine Art Queries

Questions and Onsite Access
The staff of the Boston Athenæum’s Art Department will answer basic questions about objects in the institution’s art collection. However, the staff does not perform basic biographical research on artists or conduct research on objects that are not in the Athenæum’s collection. The Art Department Collection is open to researchers and serious scholars by prior appointment only. For information about the collections or to make an appointment contact:

Online Access
The Boston Athenæum’s online catalog, Athena, is a unified catalog with records for a wide variety of material, including books, maps, broadsides, and works of art on paper. The card catalog of the Prints & Photographs collection was converted to online records and added to Athena in 2003. Catalog records for new acquisitions of prints and other works on paper are also entered into Athena regularly. Many of these records contain a linked digital image. Although the records in Athena represent the bulk of the collection, serious researchers are advised to consult the Curator of Prints & Photographs about special subject collections, research files, and techniques for locating pictorial works in Athena.