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Notice: Temporary Closing of the American Antiquarian Society



This announcement is being cross posted to several lists.  Please forgive
any duplication.
        Thomas Knoles, Curator of Manuscripts, American Antiquarian Society



FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 4, 2002
Contact: James David Moran
(508) 363-1131 (office) (508) 248-4694 (home)
    E-mail: jmoran@mwa.org
American Antiquarian Society to temporarily close library due to
construction project

        (Worcester, MA) The American Antiquarian Society (AAS), a national
research library of American history and culture located at 185 Salisbury
Street, Worcester, Massachusetts, will temporarily close its facilities to
the public from January 21, 2002, to on or about April 1, 2002.   This
suspension of library services is necessitated by a $9 million building
project that is creating a new collections storage area and upgrading the
fire detection and suppression systems in the Society's historic main
building, Antiquarian Hall. The closing will temporarily suspend
researchers' access to the collections, weekly tours, and public programs.
The Society's outreach programs to schools will continue uninterrupted.
For further information and construction updates please check the Society's
web page at www.americanantiquarian.org
<http://www.americanantiquarian.org>.
        The AAS building project will expand Antiquarian Hall by adding a
12,000 square-foot collection storage vault onto the back of the building.
The two-story addition will feature state-of-the-art library heating,
ventilating, and air conditioning systems and advanced fire detection and
sprinkler systems.  The addition will contain historic library materials,
housed on compact shelving to make the most efficient use of space.  It is
estimated that the new addition will contain approximately 30,000 linear
feet of shelving and will expand the Society's capacity for collection
storage by nearly 90 percent.  The architectural firm of Shepley, Bulfinch,
Richardson, and Abbott is designing the project with the firm of
Linbeck/Kennedy and Rossi serving as construction managers.
         The expansion and renovation of Antiquarian Hall is funded through
a $12 million capital fund drive entitled "Building, Collecting, Connecting:
A Campaign for the American Antiquarian Society."   A total of $10.9 million
has been raised to date, including an $800,000 challenge grant from The
Kresge Foundation.    In addition to the building project, funds raised will
also be used to increase endowments for acquisitions and to create a new
endowment for outreach activities.
        The Society's collection of early American imprints and newspapers -
considered the finest in the world - contains approximately three million
items housed on some twenty miles of shelving in the current Antiquarian
Hall.  The Society increases its holdings of historic printed materials by
approximately 4,000 items every year.  Antiquarian Hall was constructed in
1909 and has expanded three times, in 1924, 1950, and 1972.   Antiquarian
Hall was designated a national historic landmark in 1969 and is the
anchoring structure of the Massachusetts Avenue Historic District.
The American Antiquarian Society

        Founded in 1812 as the country's first national historical
organization, the American Antiquarian Society is both a learned society and
a major independent research library.  The AAS library today houses the
largest and most accessible collection of books, pamphlets, broadsides,
newspapers, periodicals, sheet music, and graphic arts material printed
through 1876 in what is now the United States, as well as manuscripts and a
substantial collection of secondary works, bibliographies, and other
reference works related to all aspects of American history and culture
before the twentieth century.  The Society sponsors a broad range of
programs - visiting research fellowships, research, education, publications,
lectures, and concerts - for constituencies ranging from school children and
their teachers, through undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral
scholars, creative and performing artists and writers, and the general
public.

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