The Portsmouth Athenaeum was officially established as a corporation by the New Hampshire state Legislature on June 20, 1817.

In the previous year, 72 Portsmouth residents had informally supported the idea of a membership library, perceiving the need for a replacement of the public library destroyed in the fire of 1813.

The first proprietors were among the town’s leading citizens and set forth lofty ideals to underpin the Athenaeum’s mission.

In one of their early reports they asserted that a library “…operates throughout society in correcting narrowness of mind, local prejudices, frivolous and injurious conversation, vicious habits, and the sordid cupidity of wealth. They will infest every society in proportion as the resources of literature are closed against it. Men pass rapidly fr

See Full Page