Boston

Libraries and Museums

The reference and research collections at the Boston Public Library are ranked third in the country, following only those of the New York and Los Angeles public libraries. The library, founded in 1852, employs a staff of 489 and circulates some 2.4 million items annually. Its book collection includes 6.7 million volumes. The library's main building in Copley Square is an architectural landmark. Built in Italian Renaissance style in 1895, it boasts murals by John Singer Sargent (1856–1925) and other beautiful works of art, as well as a picturesque courtyard. A modern atrium-centered addition, the McKim building, was completed in 1972 and provides a dramatic contrast to the original building. The John F. Kennedy Library holds the presidential papers of the late president.

The Museum of Fine Arts is one of the finest in the country; many rank it second only to New York's Metropolitan Museum. Built in 1909, it added the new West Wing, designed by renowned architect I. M. Pei (b. 1917), in 1981. The museum is especially noted for its Asian and Old Kingdom Egyptian collections, but there are many masterpieces by European and American painters as well, including a 1796 portrait of George Washington by Gilbert Stuart (1755–1828). Boston's other museums include the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Harvard's Fogg Art Museum, and the Science Museum.