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The Salem Athenaeum, founded in 1810, is one of the oldest membership libraries in the United States. The Athenaeum is located at 337 Essex Street in Salem, Massachusetts in the McIntire Historic District.
In 2023, the athenaeum successfully completed a restoration project for the historic building. They are currently raising funds to make the building more accessible to meet modern library standards.
The Athenaeum's first permanent building was constructed in the 1850s with a large bequest from Caroline Plummer. In 1905 the Athenaeum sold that building and used the proceeds to build their current facility, which was dedicated in 1907.
For much of the 19th century, librarians were appointed to work just one day a week to do mostly clerical work and the Board of Trustees decided book purchases. Between 1885 and 1947, Miss Alice Homans Osborne served as appointed librarian of the Salem Athenaeum after graduating from high school. Osborne reclassified the collection to the Dewey Decimal system between 1895 and 1898. The first professional librarian of the Salem Athenaeum was Cynthia Wiggins. Wiggins stayed in the position from 1960 to 1994.
Today, the collections include over 50,000 volumes on diverse topics. Salem Athenaeum Official Website (accessed Oct. 9, 2009)The Salem Athenæum, 1810–1910 by Joseph Nickerson Ashton (Berkeley press, 1917) [3]
The Salem Literary Festival is an annual literary event. Cornerstone Books (closed 2010) started the festival in 2008. From 2017 to the present, the Salem Athenaeum is the primary presenter of the festival.
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