Books, Newspapers, and Sociability in the Making of the Portsmouth Athenæum

Baenen discusses the making of the Portsmouth Athenaeum. With more than seven thousand volumes, the Athenaeum was the largest single library in the state and although it was small in comparison to the great libraries of Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, local boosters claimed that there were few if any, more valuable libraries of its size in the country. The Athenaeum was fortunate to be so securely established for the era's libraries depended upon the voluntary exertions of their members and occasional benefactors.