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Acquired Tastes: 200 Years of Collecting for the Boston Athenaeum Hardcover – January 1, 2007

5.0 5.0 out of 5 stars 3 ratings

This book celebrates the 200th anniversary of the historic Boston Athenaeum, one of this country's earliest and most prestigious repositories of books, paintings, sculptures, engravings, maps, photographs, manuscripts, decorative arts, and other artifacts of history and design. In this publication, the Athenaeum's role in the establishment and promotion of American culture is the subject of several major essays on patronage and collecting. These topics are both expanded and brought into sharper focus in fully-illustrated catalogue entries, written by members of the Athenaeum's professional staff, on a wide variety of objects representing the breadth and depth of the Athenaeum's holdings, past and present. These objects have been carefully selected not only for discussion here, but also as components of one of the most ambitious exhibitions ever mounted at the Athenaeum, held during 2007, the Athenaeum's bicentennial year.

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Editorial Reviews

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"A new exhibit of books at the Boston Athenaeum travels to the ends of the earth, across thousands of years, and into the darkest recesses of the human psyche. One volume contains hangings from Egyptian shrines and inscribed mummy wrappings dating to 1500 BC. An otherwise nondescript memoir was written by a thief in Boston in the 1800s who stipulated in his will that his reminiscences be bound in his own skin. The exhibitÑwhich celebrates the 200th anniversary of the Athenaeum, one of the oldest independent libraries in the nationÑalso features books from the libraries of George Washington and Henry Knox, his war secretary . . . Due to their delicate condition, books will be rotated in and out of the exhibit, which ends July 13. Acquired Tastes: 200 Years of Collecting for the Boston Athenaeum is the exhibit's companion volume."ÑJan Gardner, Boston Globe

". . . A 17th-century map of the coast of New England; a copy of Thomas Paine's Common Sense from the library of George Washington; a textbook for Native American children written in the Dakota language; a printed version of the Emancipation Proclamation signed by Abraham Lincoln; a panoramic photograph of Boston in ruins after the great fire of 1872: These and dozens more artifacts document a conflicted and sometimes tragic real world from which the Athenaeum's art has provided over the years a refuge of transcendental refinement."ÑKen Johnson, Boston Globe

"More than 100 items representing the holdings of the Boston Athenaeum are grouped by form (books and maps, paintings, sculpture, prints and photographs, and decorative arts and artifacts) and pictured, each accompanied by a detailed history." ÑMaine Antique Digest

About the Author

David B. Dearinger is the Susan Morse Hilles Curator of Painting and Sculpture at the Boston Athenaeum.

STANLEY ELLIS CUSHING graduated from Boston University and joined the staff of the Boston Athenaeum in 1970. For thirty years he served as Chief Conservator of the Library, responsible for the care and preservation of its book and manuscript collections. Currently, he is the Athenaeum's Curator of Rare Books. He is the author of The George Washington Library Collection (1997) and 50 Books in the Collection of the Boston Athenaeum (1994).

DAVID B. DEARINGER is the Susan Morse Hilles Curator of Paintings and Sculpture at the Boston Athenaeum. He holds a Ph.D in American art history from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He has curated many exhibitions in Boston and New York, and published and lectured widely on various topics in nineteenth-century American art. Among his publications are Rave Reviews: American Art and Its Critics, 1825-1925 (2000) and Paintings and Sculpture in the Collection of the National Academy of Design (2004). He is currently an adjunct member of the art history faculty at the State University of New York's Fashion Institute of Technology in New York.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Univ Pr of New England; First Edition (US) First Printing & 2 La (January 1, 2007)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 384 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0934552738
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0934552738
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 9.25 x 1.5 x 12 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    5.0 5.0 out of 5 stars 3 ratings

Customer reviews

5 out of 5 stars
3 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Reviewed in the United States on October 21, 2016
I purchased this lovely book months ago and it has been in my stack of reading. I have finally turned my attention to Acquired Tastes: 200 Years of Collecting for the Boston Athenaeum. To my surprise, I opened the piece to discover it is autographed by Stanley Ellis Cushing (curtor of rare books) and David B. Dearinger (curator of paintings and sculpture) for the Athenaeum. What a delightful surprise! As I leaf through this substantial, atlas-sized coffee-table book, my eyes feast on large color photographs of rare books and maps, paintings, sculptures, artifacts and decorative arts, all printed on high-quality semi-gloss paper. Every era of history is represented. I can see from the first chapter that the beautifully written prose explains the history of this venerable library, which was established in Boston in 1807 and flourishes to this day. Though I will be reading (and relishing) this book for some weeks before I finish, I know I will get a birds-eye view into the history of the institution's famous members as well as a back-stage pass to some of the finer things in the Athenaeum's vast collections. And most exciting of all, I am about to learn the thought process used by Athenaeum curators for what becomes collection-worthy. I will go slow on this book and savor it through the cold winter nights -- or until I can next pay a visit to 10.5 Beacon Street myself. Oh, to nestle in a corner of that beautiful place for an afternoon!
Reviewed in the United States on November 2, 2009
This book is a treasure. It takes you into so many unusual places. I like that it's a collection of short subjects that are great to read before going to bed. You really feel like you've stepped back into time and are reading about something almost secret and nearly unpublished. It's a large book, but the exquisite plates are so worth it. Enjoy.
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Bibliothekar
5.0 out of 5 stars アメリカの図書館の豊かさの象徴
Reviewed in Japan on November 17, 2010
アメリカには18世紀以前から会員制の図書館が現在著名なものだけでも16館位存在する。その中でもいまも活発な活動を展開するボストン・アシニアムは2007年に創立200周年を迎えた。それを記念して所蔵する豊かな品々を収蔵にいたる歴史的エッセイとともに目録化したものが本書。
 建物は5階建て相当で、一般見学も可能だが、会員のみのエリアが大半である。最上階に会員専用の閲覧室、その奥に会議室があり、そこのは初代大統領ジョージ・ワシントン旧蔵の蔵書の3分の1を所蔵する。稀覯本も多く、ニュルンベルク年代記や豪華絢爛。これが会員制図書館か、と思わせるほど豊かで宮殿のような図書館である。ボストンの中心部、ビーコン・ヒルに建つ。年会費230ドルは安いかもしれない。図書館専門職も数十名が業務に当たる。
 目録は図書と地図、絵画、彫刻、版画と写真、装飾芸術と装飾工芸に分けられている。目録は書誌記述のほかに解題が付され、カラー写真が掲載されている。
 アメリカの図書館の豊かさの象徴的な存在かもしれない。