With Éclat: The Boston Athenæum and the Origin of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
"Hina Hirayama has undertaken thorough research into this institutional partnership, and narrates its story in fascinating detail." —Apollo“Her book chronicles the vital role that the Boston Athenæum played in the founding, in 1870 of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA). A membership library founded in 1807, the Athenæum offered crucial assistance to the MFA both before and after the younger institution’s incorporation, ensuring its initial survival and later success. The cooperation between the Athenæum and the MFA was remarkable in its intensity, intimacy, and informality, yet details of this fascinating partnership have never been fully documented or explained. This book charts the two institutions’ joint endeavors in greater detail than ever before and places this extraordinary collaboration in the context of Boston’s changing cultural landscape.”—Bedford Citizen“Did you ever wonder how the huge and influential Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA) got its start? The most comprehensive chronicle available to answer that question, which had not been fully told before, is found in this book. It begins with the Boston Athenæum’s key role and the so-called Brahmin culture of 19th-century Boston, which the author focuses upon with an admirable blend of respect for accuracy and vivacity, arising from her steadfast curiosity, research, and clear presentation.”—Maine Antique Digest“Hina Hirayama offers an engrossing history of one of the city’s most revered cultural institutions and an account of the all-but-forgotten support it received from a sister organization during its formative years.”—New England Quarterly