St. Johnsbury Athenaeum facts for kids
Quick facts for kids St. Johnsbury Athenaeum |
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| Established | 1871 |
| Location | St. Johnsbury, Vermont |
| Website | http://www.stjathenaeum.org/ |
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St. Johnsbury Athenaeum
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The Athenaeum in 1906
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 Location in Vermont
Location in the United States
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| Location | St. Johnsbury, Vermont |
| Built | 1871 |
| Architect | John Davis Hatch III |
| Architectural style | Second Empire |
| NRHP reference No. | 96000970 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | July 18, 1996 |
| Designated NHL | July 18, 1996 |
The St. Johnsbury Athenaeum is a unique place in St. Johnsbury, Vermont. It serves as both a public library and an art gallery. The building itself is very important because of its history and how it was designed. It was built in a style called French Second Empire, which was popular in the 1800s.
The Athenaeum is also known for its beautiful collection of American landscape paintings. It has many books too. A man named Horace Fairbanks helped fund this special place. He was famous for inventing the world's first platform scale. Many of the artworks here are from the Hudson River School of painting.
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History of the Athenaeum
The St. Johnsbury Athenaeum first opened its doors in 1871. When it started, it had about 8,000 books. These books were carefully chosen by a person named William Frederick Poole.
The Art Gallery's Beginning
Just two years later, in 1873, Horace Fairbanks added a small art gallery to the Athenaeum. This gallery is very special. It is one of the few art galleries in the United States that still looks like it did in the late 1800s.
The gallery shows off a detailed Victorian-style design. This includes fancy paint and stencil patterns on the walls. There are also detailed moldings and clever ways to use natural light. The paintings are displayed in a unique way.
Inside the Art Gallery
The walls and floor of the art gallery are made from dark black walnut wood. Natural light fills the room from a large, arched skylight in the ceiling. Along two sides of the room, there are cases holding art books. These books have beautiful leather covers. Many paintings in fancy gold frames are on display.
About one hundred artworks are shown in the gallery. Some are original paintings by American artists. Others are copies of famous European masterpieces. Most of the collection features art from the late 1700s to the mid-1800s.
Famous Paintings and Artists
You can see paintings by artists from the Hudson River School. These include Asher B. Durand and Jasper Francis Cropsey. There's also a painting by Sanford Gifford, who was a Luminist painter. You can also find peaceful landscapes with cattle by James and William Hart.
Artists like Samuel Colman and Worthington Whittredge painted scenes from the American West. The biggest painting in the room is called Domes of Yosemite. It is ten feet tall and fifteen feet wide. This amazing artwork was painted by Albert Bierstadt.
Some original works by European painters are also here. These include "Raspberry Girl" by Bouguereau. You can also see "Venice" by Félix Ziem, and works by Charles Euphrasie Kuwasseg and Louis Pinel de Grandchamp.
The Library Today
The Athenaeum's library is part of a bigger system. It shares its catalog and borrowing system with over 50 other libraries in Vermont. This system is called the Vermont Organization of Koha Automated Libraries. This means you can easily find and borrow books from many different libraries.
See also
