After a month of commuting to Boston for my new job, this week I began exploring beyond my Back Bay office. Visiting the Boston Athenæum to inquire about membership was high on my list. Walking a block down Marlborough Street, I crossed over to the Boston Garden. Continuing on through the Boston Common and past the golden-domed Massachusetts State House, I arrived at 10 1/2 Beacon Street–the wonderfully quirky address of the Athenæum.
membership in the family
Founded in 1807, today the Athenæum describes itself as “a unique combination of library, museum, and cultural center in a magnificent landmark building.” As someone born of humble origins in the Midwest, such institutions were not exactly on my radar growing up. I first learned about the Athenæum through my partner whose family has deep roots in Boston. In fact, for generations they have held a “proprietors share” in the Athenæum.
Despite family lore that this share had been in the family since the founding in 1807, I have recently learned that the first holder of this share, John Joseph May, became the 6th owner of the share in 1862. (Although his father, Samuel May, was among the earliest proprietors through a different share.) John Joseph’s share passed to his granddaughter, Florence May Winsor Churchill, and then on to her grandson and my partner’s father, John MB “Jack” Churchill.
While not related by blood or marriage to the family, for nearly twenty years now I have both chosen to see them as family and have felt treated as family by them. As many now understand, belonging to a family is often a matter of choice, not just blood or law.
becoming the shareholder
When Jack died in 2012, my partner and his siblings sorted through many inherited items. When the dust settled, the Athenæum share landed with a sibling, but a small watercolor from the window of the library hangs on a wall in our home. With the advent of my new position in Boston, I am grateful to this sibling for passing on to me the honor of becoming the steward of this share.
This particular share is meaningful to me also because John Joseph May and his wife Caroline Simpkins Danforth were devoted members of the First Church in Roxbury, now the site of the Unitarian Universalist Urban Ministries. A plaque to them remains on the wall of the 1804 Meetinghouse.
Additionally, John Joseph May was first cousin to the Unitarian minister and abolitionist leader, the Rev. Samuel Joseph May. A finding aid at the Massachusetts Historical Society writes, “Members of the May family of Boston have long been associated with progressive and philanthropic causes.” As a Unitarian Universalist minister, I am proud to link myself with this May family in a small way through this share. (Note: my own May family ancestry descends through 18th century German immigrants in Pennsylvania and Ohio.)
relics
History can at times feel like a series of names, dates, and places detached from our here and now. And yet, as author Matthew Dennis recently discussed in a seminar on “American Relics and the Politics of Public Memory,” material artifacts from history can serve as a tangible link to the past in meaningful ways. For me, this Athenæum share functions as a relic connecting me both to the history of this space as well as to to the “progressive and philanthropic” legacy of my family. Becoming a member of the Athenæum is one way I am choosing to cultivate a deeper sense of belonging in the institutions and stories of Boston.