Inspired by one of literature’s most haunting figures, award-winning author Lynn Cullen crafts a tale about Edgar Allan Poe, his poet mistress, and his obsessive young wife, featuring many historical characters well known to the Athenæum. Book signing to follow the program. -- Lynn Cullen grew up in Fort Wayne, Indiana and is the bestselling […]
You would have to be a pretty clever bird to want to hang out at the library! Help welcome Zachariah, a real live raven, and the Audubon Society of Rhode Island to the Providence Athenæum. In conjunction with their special exhibit Ravenous: The Enduring Legacy of Poe, the Athenæum is partnering with the Audubon Society […]
Join us for an evening of Gothic poetry and flash fiction in partnership with School One. There will be a reading of "The Raven" orated by Kiani Pope, youth poet of Rhode Island, and local high school students will read their own Edgar Allan Poe-inspired works. Ravenous: The Enduring Legacy of Poe exhibition will be […]
Exhibition on view June 3 - September 10 In 1836, the Providence Library Company (1753) and the Providence Athenæum (1831) made the decision to dissolve their institutions and reform as the library we know today as the Providence Athenæum. The library has occupied its home on Benefit Street since 1838, bearing witness to the evolution […]
The Providence Athenæum is thrilled to welcome acclaimed author Colson Whitehead to Providence! Named “a genuine literary phenomenon” by The New York Times, he recently was the first author in almost a decade to appear on the cover of Time. His 2016 novel The Underground Railroad won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the Andrew Carnegie Medal for […]
Annette Gordon-Reed, a Pulitzer Prize- and National Book Award-winning scholar, is a preeminent historian of early America, law, slavery, and the country's third president. Join us for a conversation about Thomas Jefferson's impact on our republic and the distance between his principles and lived reality. She will be joined by Brown University Assistant Professor Emily […]
Today, we know about the Rough Riders mostly as a colorful chapter in the life of Theodore Roosevelt. But there is much more to the tale. In his talk, New York Times deputy op-ed editor Clay Risen will explore the untold history of the regiment and explain what made it such a significant part of […]
Ian Donnis, Political Reporter for the Public's Radio, will be joined by the following panelists: Scott MacKay, The Public's Radio political analyst; Jordan Seaberry, artist, grassroots organizer and policy and advocacy director for the Nonviolence Institute; GOP strategist Lisa Pelosi; and longtime Latino activist Dr. Pablo Rodriguez. Presented with The Public's Radio
David W. Blight, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom and director of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition at Yale, will discuss Douglass' connections to Rhode Island, his vision for freedom, and his relationships with fellow Rhode Island abolitionists. The talk will be accompanied by African […]
First-time readers of Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) are often surprised by how little Wollstonecraft actually says about rights. There is no proposed woman’s bill of rights, no plea to grant women the right to vote, or to assemble, or to have a jury of their peers. What Wollstonecraft explores […]
