The Providence Athenæum is one of the oldest surviving membership libraries in the country. Open for nearly 200 years on Providence’s historic Benefit Street, the library has welcomed illustrious writers, spirited thinkers, and curious community members to engage in reading, conversation, and debate since its founding in 1836. Famous visitors have included Edgar Allan Poe, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Bronson Alcott, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and HP Lovecraft. The library’s collection contains almost 180,000 items and includes rare and unique treasures such as Poe’s signature in a library book, a pre-Columbus map of the world, a monumental study of Egypt commissioned by Napoleon, a first edition of Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, and one of the most prized natural history books of all time.