Athenaeum of Philadelphia

The Athenaeum of Philadelphia, located at 219 S. 6th Street between St. James Place and Locust Street in the Society Hill section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is a special collections membership library and museum founded in 1814. The Athenaeum's purpose, according to its organizational principles, is to collect materials "connected with the history and antiquities of America, and the useful arts, and generally to disseminate useful knowledge" for public benefit."Mission and History" on the Athenaeum of Philadelphia website

The Athenaeum's collections include architecture and interior design history, particularly for the period 1800 to 1945. The institution focuses on the history of American architecture and building technology, and houses architectural archives of 180,000 drawings, over 350,000 photographs, and manuscript holdings of about 1,000 American architects.

Since 1950, the Athenaeum has sponsored the annual Athenaeum Literary Award for works of fiction and non-fiction.

Founding The Athenaeum of Philadelphia was founded in 1814, as a non-profit subscription library “to disseminate useful knowledge.” Initially, the Athenaeum was housed in Philosophical Hall, at 104 S. 5th Street. It was next to Independence Hall and just across the street from The Library Company of Philadelphia (established in 1731). The Athenaeum was open for longer hours and provided more specialized periodicals and reference works. Many of its founders were members of both institutions.

Both the Library Company of Philadelphia and the Athenaeum were member-supported. The Athenaeum's founders included prominent Philadelphians like Nicholas Biddle, Horace Binney, George Cadwalader, Mathew Carey, Jacob Gratz, Benjamin Gratz, Chief Justice William Tilghman, and George and Roberts Vaux. The first public library in the city, the Free Library of Philadelphia, was not established until 1894, 80 years after the Athenaeum.

Members of the Athenaeum could bring guests as visitors, recording their names in the “Strangers’ Book” at the librarian’s desk. Visitors included John Quincy Adams, James Buchanan, Henry Clay, Millard Fillmore, Giuseppe Garibaldi, Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren, and the Marquis de LaFayette.

Building

The will of Philadelphia druggist William Lehman (1779–1829) left $10,000 to the Athenaeum for “the acquisition of a suitable building.” In 1845, a lot was purchased on Sixth Street opposite Washington Square. John Notman, a Scottish architect who had emigrating to the United States in 1831, defeated major Philadelphia architects like William Strickland and John Haviland to win the architectural design competition for the building.

The building Notman designed was in the Italianate style, and was one of the first buildings in Philadelphia to be built of brownstone, although it was originally planned to be faced in marble. Brownstone was used because it was cheaper. Notman's design was influenced by the work of the English architect Charles Barry., p.51

When the Athenaeum moved into the new building at 219 S. 6th St. in 1847, it only occupied the second floor. The others were rented out. The Historical Society of Pennsylvania was a tenant on the third floor. The Philadelphia chapter of the American Institute of Architects later became a tenant.

The building was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1976, as one of the nation's first examples of a building with a palazzo-style facade, and for its historic importance as an educational institution. and In 2022, it underwent a major renovation, opening up the main floor and expanding the library’s reading room. The exterior was also substantially renovated and the facade cleaned.

Collections

The opening of the Free Library of Philadelphia in 1894 was competition for the Athenaeum and other member-supported libraries in the Philadelphia area. Under the presidency of George Vaux (1908-1996) the Athenaeum redefined itself as a special-collections library that was still membership-based, but held public exhibitions and events. The original collection scope was expanded. Collections include Victorian material culture; America theater buildings; architecture and garden design; books and printing; and early maps and prints of Philadelphia. There are extensive holdings for stained-glass master Nicola D’Ascenzo and for decorative painter George Herzog.

Since the 1970s, the primary focus of the library’s research collections has become American architecture prior to 1930. Dealing with the work of architects, engineers, and builders, the archives include a wide range of materials such as architectural drawings, client records, photographs, and other supporting documentation. Its collections include architectural holdings for Thomas Ustick Walter, Paul Philippe Cret, Walter Mellor, Arthur I. Meigs, Louis Magaziner, and Theophilus P. Chandler, the founder of the University of Pennsylvania School of Architecture. The Athenaeum is also the official repository for the Philadelphia Chapter of the American Institute of Architects.

In 1999 the Athenaeum partnered with the William Penn Foundation and others to establish the multi-institutional Philadelphia Architects and Buildings Project. This project has created a free online digital archive of materials from over 25 Philadelphia-area repositories: the American Architects and Buildings Database.

In 2019, the Athenaeum of Philadelphia entered into an agreement with the libraries of the University of Pennsylvania to integrate their two collections, giving borrowing privilege to each other's patrons and making the Athenaeum's collection, which is focused on architecture, the built environment, and the decorative arts, searchable in Penn's online catalog.

Athenaeum Literary Award The Athenaeum Literary Award is a literary award presented by Athenaeum of Philadelphia since 1950. It is awarded to authors who are "bona fide residents of Philadelphia or Pennsylvania living within a radius of 30 miles of City Hall".Athenaeum Literary Award , official website. Eligible works are of general fiction or non-fiction; technical, scientific, and juvenile books are not included. The award was established in 1950 by Charles Wharton Stork (1881–1971), who was a board member of the Athenaeum from 1919 until 1968.

Recipients Source: Athenaeum Literary Award previous winners (1949–present)

1940s 1949 John L. Lamonte, The World of the Middle Ages

1950s +Award winners (1950-1959)YearAuthorTitle195019511952195319541955Mr. Secretary and Queen Elizabeth1956From the Tablets of Summer19571958Darwin's Century1959Mainstreams of Modern Art: David to Picasso

1960s +Award winners (1960-1969)YearAuthorTitle1960, with John F. FlemingRosenbach: A biographyStorm the Last Rampart19611962Maria: A Tale of the Northeast Coast Puritans and Yankees19631964God Bless the ChildSeeds of DiscordTake Heed of Loving Me19651966Father Against the Devil1967Design of Cities1968Expatriates and Patriots1969

1970s +Award winners (1970-1979)YearAuthorTitle1970No award1971197219731974Blue Collar Journal1975City of Independence1976No award1977Famous and Curious CemeteriesI Want to Be in Love Again1978Being SeventyNurseRockdale1979Black Africa and De GaulleJohn TwachtmanPuritan Boston and Quaker Philadelphia

1980s +Award winners (1980-1989)YearAuthorTitle1980Churchill: Speaker of the CenturyCriminals and Victims1981Brotherly LoveCharles Willson Peale and His WorldEisenhower's LieutenantsPhiladelphia, Patricians & Philistines1982DeadlinesGeorge Washington's ChinawareRingerVoices of Kensington1983E.L., the Bread Box Papers1984Philadelphians and the China Trade, 1784-18441985Chancing ItCrime and MadnessDisorderly Conduct1986Eisenhower: At War, 1943-1945Handling SinPat Nixon1987No award1988English RomanticismInnumeracy1989Mary ShelleyMedieval Art

1990s +Award winners (1990-1999)YearAuthorTitle1990Crested KimonoSexual PersonaeTime Journeys1991American Genre PaintingWilliam Dorsey's Philadelphia and Ours19921993Susquehanna, River of Dreams1994Third and Indiana1995City LifeWings of Morning1996Pearl S. Buck: A Cultural BiographyTumbling1997Ancient Egypt and Kenneth FinkelCaptain Watson's Travels in AmericaCarMemoirs of Laetitia Pilkington1998Avatars of the WordJoseph Leidy: The Last Man Who Knew Everything1999 and Rodney P. CarlisleJack Tar: A Sailor's Life, 1750–1910Time, Love, Memory

2000s +Award winners (2000-2009)YearAuthorTitle2000About Town; The New Yorker and the World It MadeBody, Place, and Self in Nineteenth-Century Painting and William L. PriceArts and Crafts to Modern Design2001No award2002Independence Hall in American Memory, Robin Rice, and Monica Yant KinneyPhiladelphia Murals and the Stories They Tell20032004Historic Sacred Places of Philadelphia2005In the Shadow of the Law2006Crusader Nation: The United States in Peace and the Great War, 1898–19202007Finn: A Novel2008Throes of Democracy: The American Civil War Era, 1829–18772009Plain, Honest Men: The Making of The American Constitution

2010s +Award winners (2010-2019)YearAuthorTitle2010Appetite For America: How Visionary Businessman Fred Harvey Built a Railroad Hospitality Empire that Civilized the WestIf I Loved You, I Would Tell You This: Stories2011No award2012Heft: A Novel20132014Governed By A Spirit of Opposition2015American Zoo: A Sociological SafariHouses for a New World: Builders and Buyers in American Suburbs2016Eye of the Sixties2017Never Caught: the Washingtons' Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave Ona Judge2018CirceFrontier Rebels: the Fight for Independence in the American West, 1765-1776`2019Charleston FancyStrange Harvests

2020s +Award winners (2020-present)YearAuthorTitle2020 and Therese DolanSalut! France Meets Philadelphia2021Empire of RuinsMy Broken Language2022After the Ivory Tower FallsUniversity City: History, Race, and Community in the Era of the Innovation District2023Rug ManLazaretto2024Housemates William Bartram's Visual Wonders: The Drawings of an American Naturalist 2025Alias O. Henry: A NovelBorn in Flames: The Business of Arson and the Remaking of the American City

Athenaeum of Philadelphia

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