The Providence Athenaeum is an independent membership library that opened on Benefit Street in 1838; it’s progenitor was an earlier library, The Providence Library Company, founded in 1753. The library has played a key role in defining the cultural, intellectural and social life of Rhode Island. In its early years, it had a role in shaping America itself.

The Athenaeum is remarkable for its wide-ranging collections, its wonderful building and, most importantly, the people who know and love it. There are few institutions like it.

The Athenaeum’s lineage derives in equal measure from ancient European libraries and societies and from early American ideals of self-reliance and community service. The Athenaeum is neither a public library, nor an academic library, nor a community center, nor a private club – it is a little bit of all these things and it is more. It is a community in the true sense of the word. It is a place that grounds us and brings us closer together.

Today it stands as a testament to the foresight and devotion of those who truly understand the power of the written word to inspire the mind and fire the imagination – and who understand the power of a physical space such as the Athenaeum to draw people together to a common purpose.

That purpose is simply to enrich life – to explore and better understand what it means to be human and, in so doing, come to know oneself and one’s compatriots better.

Since its foundation, the Athenaeum has acquired books and other materials for the use and edification of its membership. A primary mission has always been to provide for a library of wider scope and depth than was in the means of any one member.

The library’s history, which can be traced back 250 years, testifies to the success of this mission.

Over the past three decades the Athenaeum’s presence in Providence has been expanding with an increasing array of opportunities for members and others to come together for cultural programming and social interaction.