New Books in May
A budding reading habit this spring? We can help. Proprietors and Subscribers, click on the link below to discover the new books now available in the library. May New Books Not a Proprietor or a Subscriber? Find out how you can become a member and support the...May 2025 Book List: April Showers Bring May Flowers!
By Research Librarian Jessica McClain This oft-quoted proverb dates back to a 16th century work by English poet and Farmer Thomas Tusser. The lines appear in a sonnet included in the piece “A Hundreth Good Pointes of Husbandrie” as “And Aprill his stormes, to be good...April 2025: Library Appreciation Month
By Research Librarian Jessica McClain The American Library Association sponsored the first National Library Week in 1958, and we continue to recognize and celebrate the role of libraries and librarians in our communities during the first full week of April each year....Goodbye to Winter
By Keeper and Executive Director Tom Hardiman Last week we said goodbye to winter (at least according to the calendar). All-in-all, it was a winter to forget. The recent months have been sad for our Athenæum family. Just as we are planning our Memorial Concert on May...A Little Extra Love from Libraries
By Keeper and Executive Director Tom Hardiman I am a life-long library lover and have now reached an age when I think I have literally spent half my life in a library of some kind. A few years ago, my lovely wife bought me a new wallet for Christmas. As I was cleaning...New Books in March
It’s spring! Time for your reading lists to bloom with the new books now available in the library. Proprietors and Subscribers, click on the link below to discover the new books now available in the library. March New Books Not a Proprietor or a Subscriber? Find...Spring 2025 Newsletter
Happening at the Athenaeum The spring Athenæum newsletter is chock full — from a nibble of our newest exhibit, “The Lunch Hour: Portsmouth,” to a look at the “Beauty on the Seacoast and Beyond” lecture series. Meet our 31 newest members...March 2025: Women’s History Month
By Research Librarian Jessica McClain In February of 1980, President Jimmy Carter issued a Presidential Proclamation declaring the week of March 8 as the first national observance of Women’s History Week with the following statement: From the first settlers who came...The Lunch Hour: Portsmouth, 1800 to 1950
Samuel Johnson in his 1755 dictionary defined the word lunch: “as much food as a hand can hold,” in other words a snack. The main meal of the day, dinner, was a hot meal eaten at home with family and apprentices or field hands, at approximately 2pm. For travelers...Events Calendar
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