Reading the Athenaeum

I've been asked to review a new history of the Boston Athenaeum (Katherine Wolff's The Culture Club) for a future issue of Libraries & the Cultural Record, so as part of my preparation for that project I've been reading (and will continue to read) some of the earlier histories of the institution (and, as time permits, hopefully some of the recent publications relating to their bicentennial). I won't be writing reviews of each of these as I go (as I usually do), but you can keep up with what I'm doing using my new LT "Boston Athenaeum" tag.