Athenaeum of Philadelphia

Welcome to the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. The Athenaeum was established in 1814 as a subscription library, at a time when the free public library system did not exist and collections of books, available for reading or research, were still mostly limited to institutions, schools or colleges.

The Athenaeum of Philadelphia nurtures curiosity in members and neighbors, strengthening community through learning and discourse.

The Athenaeum of Philadelphia is one of 16 membership libraries that collaborate through the Membership Libraries Group. Some, like the Charleston (est. 1748), New York Society (est. 1754), and Newport (est. 1741) libraries, date from the 18th Century.

2021 Speaker Series VIEW LIST (25 BOOKS)

Strange Harvests: Giving and Taking from the Natural World

Edward Posnett

$17.00

$15.64

Building Brands: Corporations and Modern Architecture

Grace Ong Yan

$69.99

$64.39

The Eagles of Heart Mountain: A True Story of Football, Incarceration, and Resistance in World War II America

Bradford Pearson

$28.00

$25.76

White Feminism: From the Suffragettes to Influencers and Who They Leave Behind

Koa Beck

$27.00

$24.84

Land: How the Hunger for Ownership Shaped the Modern World

Simon Winchester

$29.99

$27.59

Ida B. the Queen: The Extraordinary Life and Legacy of Ida B. Wells

Michelle Duster

$27.00

$24.84

2021 Speaker Series

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Athenaeum Literary Award Winners VIEW LIST (27 BOOKS)

Salut!: France Meets Philadelphia

Lynn Miller and Therese Dolan

$40.00

$36.80

The Beauty in Breaking: A Memoir

Michele Harper

$27.00

$24.84

Strange Harvests: Giving and Taking from the Natural World

Edward Posnett

$17.00

$15.64

Charleston Fancy: Little Houses and Big Dreams in the Holy City

Witold Rybczynski

$22.80

Circe

Madeline Miller

$29.00

$26.68

Frontier Rebels: The Fight for Independence in the American West, 1765-1776

Patrick Spero

$27.95

Athenaeum Literary Award Winners

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Athenaeum Authors VIEW LIST (39 BOOKS)

Women's Experiences of the Second World War: Exile, Occupation and Everyday Life

$120.00

The Cemetery Traveler: Selections from the blog by

Ed Snyder

$12.95

In the Meeting: A Frances Yates Mystery

Marjorie G. Jones

$20.00

$18.40

Philadelphia Builds: Essays on Architecture

Michael J. Lewis

$24.95

$22.95

Strange Harvests: Giving and Taking from the Natural World

Edward Posnett

$17.00

$15.64

The Eagles of Heart Mountain: A True Story of Football, Incarceration, and Resistance in World War II America

Bradford Pearson

$28.00

$25.76

Athenaeum Authors

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Staff Recommendations VIEW LIST (18 BOOKS)

Writers & Lovers

Lily King

$27.00

$24.84

William Still: The Underground Railroad and the Angel at Philadelphia

William C Kashatus

$35.00

$32.20

She Came to Slay: The Life and Times of Harriet Tubman

Erica Armstrong Dunbar

$23.99

$22.07

Circe

Madeline Miller

$16.99

$15.63

Ida B. the Queen: The Extraordinary Life and Legacy of Ida B. Wells

Michelle Duster

$27.00

$24.84

Visionary Women: How Rachel Carson, Jane Jacobs, Jane Goodall, and Alice Waters Changed Our World

Andrea Barnet

$17.99

$16.55

Staff Recommendations

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Member Favorites VIEW LIST (18 BOOKS)

Hamnet

Maggie O'Farrell

$26.95

$24.79

The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race

Walter Isaacson

$35.00

$32.20

The Four Winds

Kristin Hannah

$28.99

$26.67

We Gather Together: A Nation Divided, a President in Turmoil, and a Historic Campaign to Embrace Gratitude and Grace

Denise Kiernan

$25.00

$23.00

Caste (Oprah's Book Club): The Origins of Our Discontents

Isabel Wilkerson

$32.00

$29.44

The Lions of Fifth Avenue

Fiona Davis

$27.00

$24.84

Member Favorites

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Speaker Suggestions VIEW LIST (14 BOOKS)

Creative Care: A Revolutionary Approach to Dementia and Elder Care

Anne Basting

$27.99

$25.75

The Great Inversion and the Future of the American City

Alan Ehrenhalt

$16.95

The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together

Heather McGhee

$28.00

$25.76

The Women's Fight: The Civil War's Battles for Home, Freedom, and Nation

Thavolia Glymph

$34.95

Delaware Naturalist Handbook

$35.00

The Founding Fish

John McPhee

$18.00

$16.56

Speaker Suggestions

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Athenaeum Book Club Picks VIEW LIST (24 BOOKS)

The Lost Ones

Sheena Kamal

$15.99

$14.71

The Maltese Falcon

Dashiell Hammett

$15.00

$13.80

Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019

Keisha N. Blain and Ibram X. Kendi

$32.00

$29.44

No Man's Nightingale

Ruth Rendell

$17.00

Parable of the Sower

Octavia E. Butler

$16.99

$15.63

The Unquiet Dead

Ausma Zehanat Khan

$18.99

$17.47

Athenaeum Book Club Picks

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2020 Speaker Series VIEW LIST (24 BOOKS)

Begin Again: James Baldwin's America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own

Eddie S. Glaude

$27.00

$24.84

Stolen: Five Free Boys Kidnapped Into Slavery and Their Astonishing Odyssey Home

Richard Bell

$27.00

$24.84

Jefferson's Daughters: Three Sisters, White and Black, in a Young America

Catherine Kerrison

$30.00

The Club: Johnson, Boswell, and the Friends Who Shaped an Age

Leo Damrosch

$20.00

$18.40

Long Bright River

Liz Moore

$26.00

$23.92

Frank Furness: Architecture in the Age of the Great Machines

George E. Thomas

$59.95

$55.15

2020 Speaker Series

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