Subscription Libraries

These are privately-owned libraries that are open to the public, but a membership fee or special authorization is usually required for access. They do not include libraries attached to academic institutions, but are instead mostly those affiliated with reading societies, genealogical associations and privately-funded research archives concerning specific subjects.

******************************************************************

6002
home.btconnect.com

Bromley House Library in London, England was founded in 1816 as the Nottingham Subscription Library. It moved in 1822 to its present home, Bromley House, a dark red brick building built in 1752. The building contains many interesting period features and some fine paintings. The main part of the library is housed in a series of reading rooms with plaster ceilings, cornices and overmantels. A particularly fine spiral staircase and gallery is a feature of the largest room. The Library contains about 40,000 books: local history, topographical works, and a wide selection of 19th and early 20th century novels. In recent years the collection’s emphasis has been on biographies, travel books and new novels. Membership costs £75 ($118) per year.

**********************************************************************

6003
sfgate.com

The Mechanics' Institute Library in San Francisco, CA was founded in 1854. In its one hundred year-old landmark building on Post Street, the Institute serves its members with a large general-interest circulating and research library, offering book discussion groups, writers' groups, and Internet research classes, the oldest chess club in the United States with activities for players of all abilities from beginners to grand masters and an active program of literary and cultural events, including author programs, film series, salons, special events and art exhibitions.

******************************************************************

6008
philaathanaeum.org
wikipedia.org

The Athenaeum of Philadelphia, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. is a special collections library founded in 1814 to collect materials "connected with the history and antiquities of America, and the useful arts, and generally to disseminate useful knowledge" for public benefit. The Athenaeum's collections include architecture and interior design history, particularly for the period 1800 to 1945. The institution focuses on the history of American architecture and building technology, and houses architectural archives of 180,000 drawings, 350,000+ photographs, and manuscript holdings of about 1,000 American architects. The Athenaeum building was designed in 1845 by the innovative architect John Notman (1810-1865), and is widely hailed as the seminal American structure in the Italianate Revival Style. Severely plain on the exterior and deceptive in scale, the Athenaeum building contains richly embellished reading rooms with 24-foot ceilings. Into these spaces has been gathered a museum collection of American fine and decorative arts from the period 1800 to 1850.

******************************************************************

6009
blog.gozaic.com
cleareyephoto.com (David J. Murray)

The Portsmouth Athenæum in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. It was founded in 1817 and the 1805 Federal style building, designed by architect Bradbury Johnson (1766-1820), was acquired by the society in 1823. Like most athenæums, it combines the functions of a library with those of an art gallery and museum. The institution retains certain 19th century customs -- members are "proprietors," and the director is "keeper." Its collection now includes more than 40,000 books, with an archive of about 12,000 photographs, 4000 of which are posted on the Athenæum's website.