Information for the Press
Exhibition in the Gallery
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Joyce Linehan (617) 282-2510 X 1, joyce@ashmontmedia.com
Kirsten Alexander, Boston Athenæum (617) 720-7654,
alexander@bostonathenaeum.org
Summer vacations in Northern New England viewed through prints and other publications and documents from the Boston Athenæum
A press preview with the library director and the curator will be held Tuesday, May 6 at 10 a.m. Please RSVP to (617) 282-2510 or joyce@ashmontmedia.com by May 1.
(BOSTON – March 11, 2008) The Boston Athenæum presents an exhibition on vacationing in 19th century New England. “Always Delightfully Cool” – Summer Vacations in Northern New England, 1825-1900 opens on May 7 and runs through Aug. 22, 2008, in The Boston Athenæum’s Norma Jean Calderwood Gallery. The Boston Athenæum is located at 10 ½ Beacon Street on Beacon Hill near the State House. Admission is FREE and open to the public. Gallery hours are Monday 9 a.m. – 8 p.m., Tuesday through Friday 9 a.m. – 5 p.m., Saturday 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. (closed summer Saturdays starting May 24). For more information, call (617) 227-0270 or visit www.bostonathenaeum.org.
This fascinating exhibition examines the early history of leisure travel and tourism in New England through advertising prints, photographs, maps, sheet music covers, and large-scale chromolithographs. Northern New England, with its varied landscape of beaches, mountains, and lakes, boasted many of the nation’s most popular vacation sites, including Maine’s Moosehead Lake and Mount Desert Island, the seaside resorts of the North and South Shores of
Massachusetts, New Hampshire’s White Mountains and Lake Winnipesaukee, and the northern Vermont towns of Burlington and Stowe.
“The Boston Athenæum holds a particularly strong collection of nineteenth-century lithographs documenting New England culture and history,” according to exhibition curator Catharina Slautterback, Associate Curator of Prints & Photographs. “Many of these prints celebrate the region’s resorts, new transportation systems, and leisure activities. While most of the grand hotels, steamship lines, and amusement parks depicted in the exhibition are long gone or dramatically changed today, many of these areas remain as major vacation destinations.” The 57 items in this exhibition are drawn primarily from the Boston Athenæum’s rich and diverse collection.
Albert Wein, American Modernist, Sept. 17 - Nov. 29, 2008
Sculptor Albert Wein (1915-1991) had both a keen interest in the human figure and an awareness of and appreciation for modernist concepts, specifically abstraction. Today, scholars are taking a closer look at artists such as Wein who sought to balance the legacies of the past with the excitement of the future. This exhibition will be the first museum retrospective of Albert Wein’s work and is being held on the occasion of the publication of the first major monograph on the artist’s life and work.
The Boston Athenæum, founded in 1807, is one of the oldest and most distinguished independent libraries in the United States. The building’s first floor galleries are always free and open to the public. The Norma Jean Calderwood Gallery features new exhibitions three to four times a year, and works of art from the Athenæum's formidable permanent collection are on display on a rotating basis in the public areas.
Membership at the Boston Athenæum is open to all by application. In addition to library borrowing privileges, members enjoy access to beautiful research rooms with wireless internet access, and many events, including concerts, lectures, book groups, children's story hours and the famous bi- weekly Athenæum afternoon tea.