Providence Athenaeum annual reports (Arch-004)

This collection consists of the Providence Athenaeum's annual reports, presented at annual meetings each year and published between 1837 and the present.

Growth of the Providence Athenæum: Examining several benchmark issues of the annual reports (from 1836, 1911 (75th anniversary), and 2018) provides a profile of the institution's growth through the years.

• Membership in 1836 consisted of 291 subscribers and shareholds. This rose in 1911 to 970 shareholders, and in 2018 to 1,273 memberships.
• Collection size grew from 4,162 volumes 1836 to 76,575 in 1911 and up to 178,012 in 2018.
• Circulation, which in 1836 was 4,162, grew to 66,440 in 1911, and 26,286 in 2018.
• Endowment: The endowment of $5,000 in 1836 grew to $51,669 by 1911.
• Assets were listed in the 1911 Treasurer's report as $16,266 and by 2018 had grown to $12,948,911.

Publication schedule: The first two reports were published in the Providence Morning Courier on March 29 and October 3, 1837. Since 1838, annual reports have been issued once a year. As the fiscal year has shifted, the months documented in annual reports have varied. For many years, the reports have been distributed between September and November, to coincide with annual meetings. Reports from 1979-1989 covered a fiscal year from Sept. 1 through August 31. In 1994 is was stated that "The Providence Athenaeum has changed its fiscal year to run concurrently with the calendar year (January 1 - December 31); this continued through the 2004 report. The 2005 and 2006 report covered an 18-month period (from January 2005 through June 2006) and stated that "Future reports will cover a 12-month period, based on new fiscal year, July 1st through June 30. This has continued to the present time.

Conjoined issues: From 1932-1963, only the 1938 report (No. 103) was issued separately. The 1932-1937 annual reports were issued in sets of two in the odd years (Nos. 97-102); 1939-1954 were issued every two years in the even years (Nos. 104-119). The annual reports from 1955-1960 were issued as a set of six (Nos. 120-125) in 1960; a set of three reports was issued in 1963 for the years 1961-1963 (Nos. 126-128). All other reports from 1838-1931 and from 1964 to the present have been issued separately.

Format: With the exception of the first two annual reports published in a Providence newspaper, subsequent annual reports are in manuscript (handwritten into journals, or as separate documents), typewritten in a few cases, and for the most part, published. The page size of reports varies from about 16-28 cm. and number of pages varies from 4 to about 100 pages. Photographs began to appear in the reports by 1911, an issue which includes a glossy photograph of the Providence Athenaeum on Benefit Street and an image from "an old print" of the Arcade Building in downtown Providence.

Content: Some early issues included sections with the full catalog of the Athenaeum's holdings and lists of recent additions to the collection. The 1911 annual report (No. 76) celebrates the 75th anniversary of the Providence Athenaeum "with a history of the Providence Library Company, 1953-1836, the old Providence Atenaeum, 1831-1836, and The Providence Athenaeum, 1836-1911" on pages [17]-55. This same 1911 report includes a list of officers and staff, a report from the Board of Directors to the shareholders, the Librarian's report of activities and circulation numbers, a financial report from the Treasurer, a list of donors of materials (books, pamphlets, and periodicals), a list of proprietors with their Share numbers, and two appendices (Appendix I. Shares and subscriptions, each year from 1837-1911; Appendix II. Additions and circulation, each year from 1837-1911).

Authorship: Early annual reports of the Providence Athenaeum were written by members of the Board of Directors, and submitted by the President of the Board to the Corporation (subscribers, also called proprietors and share-holders) at Annual Meetings. Early Presidents of the Board were John Pitman (1836-1856), William S. Patten (1856-1870), William Gammell (1870-1882), and Alexander Farnum (1882-1883). The 1st and 2nd reports, published in the local newspaper, were written by the Board Vice President, William Giles Goddard, who also authored the 4th and 5th reports (1839, 1940). The 24th report (1859) was written by J. Dunham Hedge, the Librarian hired by the Board. In more recent years, the "Librarian" has been retitled the "Executive Director" with expanded duties, and the annual report continues to be submitted by the President of the Board of Directors to the membership.

Gaps in publication: No annual reports were printed for the years 1964-1969. No report was published in Fall 1997 due to a change in the fiscal year.