Norfolk Athenaeum (1815-1842) | Sargeant Memorial Collection
Name: Norfolk Athenaeum (1815-1842)
Historical Note: The Norfolk Athenaeum was chartered by the Virginia General Assembly in January 1816. It was a literary institution whose aim was "to provide a Public Library and Reading Room for the purpose of diffusing a taste for useful reading throughout the community, and of furnishing men of Literature and science with the materials of research in their favorite studies, and in this manner to promote the great and inseparable interests of society and Religion..." (Norfolk Athenaeum Records, Page 1). The Norfolk Athenaeum dissolved in 1842.