2011 Gloucester public library Massachusetts 4

The Gloucester Lyceum (1830-1872) of

Gloucester, Massachusetts Gloucester () is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, in the United States. It sits on Cape Ann and is a part of Massachusetts's North Shore. The population was 29,729 at the 2020 U.S. Census. An important center of the fishing industry and a ...

, was an association for "the improvement of its members in useful knowledge, and the advancement of

popular education Popular education is a concept grounded in notions of class, political struggle, and social transformation. The term is a translation from the Spanish educación popular or the Portuguese educação popular and rather than the English usage a ...

." It incorporated in 1831.Gloucester Lyceum and Sawyer Free Library, Inc.: 1830-1930, the record of a century. S.l.: s.n., 930?/ref> From the 1830s through at least the 1860s, the Lyceum arranged lectures from notables such as:

Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champ ...

Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. (; August 29, 1809 – October 7, 1894) was an American physician, poet, and polymath based in Boston. Grouped among the fireside poets, he was acclaimed by his peers as one of the best writers of the day. His most fa ...

, "the two Everetts, Choate, Sumner, Rantoul, Winthrop, Colfax, Greely, ... Parker, Curtis, Phillips,

Bayard Taylor Bayard Taylor (January 11, 1825December 19, 1878) was an American poet, literary critic, translator, travel author, and diplomat. As a poet, he was very popular, with a crowd of more than 4,000 attending a poetry reading once, which was a record ...

, Dr. Holland, Chapin, Starr King, Hillard, ... Beecher, Giles, Gough, Dr. Hayes, the Arctic explorer, Burlingame, ... Alger, Whipple, Murdoch, Vanderhoff, Bancroft, and Dana." From 1830, "meetings were held in Union Hall ... until 1844 when the Murray Institute was used for one season prior to the occupancy of the Town Hall." In 1854 "the Lyceum opened its library on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons and evenings, with 1,400 volumes. It was located in the eastern parlor of the residence of F. G. Low on what was then the corner of Spring and Duncan Streets." Patrons could use the library for $1 per year; the fee was waived for those unable to afford it. In 1863 the library moved to Front Street; the building burned down in 1864. Thereafter it occupied rooms on Middle Street (in the Baptist church), and later on Front Street (in the Babson block). Much of the funding for the library came from "Samuel E. Sawyer, a

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

merchant, but a native of Gloucester." The Lyceum became the Gloucester Lyceum and Sawyer Free Library under a new charter in 1872.

Lectures/Performances

* 1830 ** Hosea Hildreth ** William Ferson ** Mr. SpencerSalem Gazette, Dec. 7, 1830 ** Benjamin Crowninshield ** Charles G. Putnam ** Henry Prentiss * 1832 ** John James Babson * 1834 ** Mr. Ward * 1835 ** George S. HillardSalem Gazette, Nov. 10, 1835 ** A. H. Everett ** Jerome V. C. Smith ** Ezekiel W. Leach ** Rev. Mr. Sewall ** Daniel P. King ** Rev. Mr. Withington ** Rev. Mr. Fox ** Samuel E. Cowes ** A. L. Peirson ** Rev. Mr. Williams ** Rev. Mr. Worcester ** John S. Williams ** Rev. Mr. Thompson ** George H. Devereux ** R. S. Edes * 1848 **

Henry David Thoreau Henry David Thoreau (July 12, 1817May 6, 1862) was an American naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher. A leading Transcendentalism, transcendentalist, he is best known for his book ''Walden'', a reflection upon simple living in natural su ...

Bradley P. Dean and Ronald Wesley Hoag. "Thoreau's Lectures before Walden: An Annotated Calendar." Studies in the American Renaissance, 1995 * 1858-1859 **

Henry Ward Beecher Henry Ward Beecher (June 24, 1813 – March 8, 1887) was an American Congregationalist clergyman, social reformer, and speaker, known for his support of the Abolitionism, abolition of slavery, his emphasis on God's love, and his 1875 adultery ...

Gloucester Directory, 1860 ** Daniel C. Eddy ** A. D. Mayo ** Wendell Phillips ** George Vandenhoff ** George B. Loring ** John G. Saxe ** George D. Prentice * 1860 **

Mendelssohn Quintette Club The Mendelssohn Quintette Club (1849–1895) based in Boston, Massachusetts, was one of "the most active and most widely known chamber ensemble in America" in the latter half of the 19th century. It toured throughout New England and beyond, inclu ...

** Grace Greenwood ** George Sumner ** William W. Sylvester ** William H. Millburn, "the blind preacher" ** George William Curtiss, "author of Trumps" ** Rufus Laighton Jr. ** Benjamin H. Smith Jr. ** William Hague

Lectures/Performances

See also

References

Further reading