FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Joyce Linehan, (617) 282-2510 x 1, joyce@ashmontmedia.com

Spring - Summer 2009 (please click on the event title to read PDF)

At the Boston Athenæum Norma Jean Calderwood Gallery: "Treasures from the Boston Athenaeum: Summer Installation 2009," will open Wednesday, May 27 and remain on view until August 28.

Free Public Lectures, Book Talks, Poetry and Music in Winter Spring 2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Joyce Linehan, (617) 282-2510 x 1, joyce@ashmontmedia.com

THE BOSTON ATHENÆUM APPOINTS PAULA MATTHEWS TO NEWLY CREATED CHIEF LIBRARIAN POSITION 

(BOSTON – October 2, 2008) Richard Wendorf, Stanford Calderwood Director and Librarian of The Boston Athenæum today announced the appointment of Paula Matthews to the newly-created position of Chief Librarian/Director of Operations. Matthews will join the staff on Oct. 8, 2008.

“The staff and I are delighted that Paula will join us,” said Wendorf. “Her 35 years of experience at libraries all over the United States as well as in Europe will make her a wonderful addition to our organization. As we move into our third century, we look forward to the future of one of the country’s most distinguished libraries.”

Paula Matthews was most recently the Librarian of the Arthur Mendel Music Library at Princeton University, where she served on the University’s Priorities Committee for the academic years 2005-2006. She has worked at the Oberlin College Library, at the Iowa City Public Library (as a children’s librarian), at the Openbaremuziekbiblioteek in Utrecht, in the Print Room and Rare Book

collections of the Yale Center for British Art, at the Boston Public Library, at Colby College, and at Columbia University’s Teachers College. For many years she served as Associate Librarian, Music Librarian, and as Acting College Librarian at Bates College.

Matthews has curated several exhibitions, including digital exhibitions at Princeton; among her publications is a catalog entitled Cottage of Content; or Toys, Games, and Amusements of 19 th Century England, which she wrote for the Yale Center for British Art. She has given numerous talks to professional associations and societies, and has served as President of the Music Library Association. In 2003 she was given the MLA’s Special

Achievement Award, recognizing extraordinary service to the Association and to the profession of music librarianship.

She holds an undergraduate degree from Oberlin College and received her library degree at the University of Iowa, with additional courses in the Netherlands and with Terry Belanger at Rare Book School.

Paula’s husband, the composer William Matthews, is the Alice Swanson Esty Professor of Music at Bates College. Her son, Benjamin, is a graduate student in neuropsychology in New York and her daughter, Hannah, is a cellist finishing her last year at Boston University.

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About the Boston Athenæum

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 Library’s 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 a delightful bi-weekly Athenæum afternoon tea. For information about membership, visit www.bostonathenaeum.org.