St. Johnsbury Athenaeum, Art museum and public library in St. Johnsbury, United States.
The St. Johnsbury Athenaeum is a museum and public library in Vermont housed in a Victorian building with dark walnut interior and soaring arched skylights. The collections include paintings by American landscape artists alongside reproductions of European works, all displayed in original gallery spaces.
A wealthy industrialist founded this institution in 1871 and hired an expert to assemble a substantial library collection from the start. The combination of library and art gallery in one building was an innovative approach inspired by European models.
The name honors the ancient seat of learning and arts. Today the place serves as both a reading room and gallery, showing how the community valued the connection between books and paintings.
The location sits in the town center and is easily reached on foot. It is best visited during daytime hours when natural light illuminates the paintings and showcases the interior design at its best.
One of the central works is a massive landscape painting by a 19th-century American artist that spans the width of an entire wall. This imposing canvas shows how painters of that era created grand visions of nature to inspire awe.
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