Boston Athenaeum

17 Best Museums in Boston

"Part museum, part library, and part members club, the Boston Athenaeum has welcomed bibliophiles, art lovers, and other intellectually curious types since 1805. (A drafter of the Massachusetts constitution and President John Adams’s secretary were among its founders, and members since have included Nathaniel Hawthorne, Louisa May Alcott, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Ralph Waldo Emerson.) Today, its landmarked 1849 neoclassical headquarters in Beacon Hill—which unveiled a $17 million, historically sensitive restoration, renovation, and expansion in fall 2022—brims with more than 500,000 circulating volumes plus a 100,000-piece strong special collection of maps, manuscripts, and ephemera, and another 100,000 works of art, including paintings by John Singer Sargent, Gilbert Stuart, and Allan Rohan Crite, a twentieth-century chronicler of the Black experience in Boston. While only Athenaeum members can take books out, anyone can visit: walk in and buy a ticket to view the main-level galleries, reading rooms, and Children’s Library; book ahead for a guided tour to see all five-plus floors, the stacks, and old-fashioned card catalog; or purchase a pass to enjoy practically free reign for a full day. A new cafe, Folio, is expected to open in 2024." - Elizabeth Wellington, Andrew Sessa