ARTH 397 - Cataloguing Curiosity: The Providence Athenaeum Art Collection

In this seminar we will undertake a major cataloguing project for the Providence Athenaeum, a library and art collection established in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1836. Every student will research and write a set of scholarly catalogue entries for the Athenaeum’s art collection, considering the works’ intrinsic art historical value as well as the objects’ connection to the intellectual and cultural mission of the institution. The completed entries will become an online resource as well as an eventual print publication. Over the course of the semester we will also study the history of membership libraries and Athenaeums in the United States more generally, and visit two of the oldest such institutions in the country: The Redwood Library and Athenaeum in Newport, Rhode Island, and the Boston Athenaeum.

Credits 4

Area
Humanities

Division
Arts and Humanities

Compass Attributes
Sophomore Experience, Humanities