Boston Athenaeum Turns 200

The Boston Athenaeum, the city's oldest private library and museum of art, is celebrating its 200th anniversary this year with an exhibit called "Acquired Tastes" that opened this week.

The Athenaeum is showcasing some of its rarest works: a copy of the Emancipation Proclamation signed by Abraham Lincoln, painting and sculpture by artists Mather Brown and Horatio Greenough. And, of course, there are books, including a bound volume of presidential speeches from the library of George Washington.

We visited the athenaeum earlier this week for a visit with Stanley Cushing and David Dearinger, curators of "Acquired Tastes."

WBUR's Bob Oakes started the conversation by talking about the Athenaeum's place in Boston's cultural life.