Boston Athenaeum

The Boston Athenaeum, founded in 1807 and located at 10 1/2 Beacon Street, is one of the oldest independent libraries in the United States. Its collections include rare books, manuscripts, and artworks associated with prominent New England writers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The Athenaeum's historic reading rooms and special collections have long made it a focal point of Boston's literary and cultural history.