The '''Boston Lyceum''' (est.1829)<ref>{{citation |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xX4BAAAAYAAJ |title=Boston Almanac |year= 1838 }}</ref> of Boston, Massachusetts was a civic association dedicated to popular education in the form of "lectures, discussions, ... declamation," and writing contests.<ref>{{Citation |publisher = Otis, Broaders and company |location = Boston |title = Bowen's picture of Boston |edition= 3rd |author = Abel Bowen |date = 1838 |oclc = 5204074 |ol = 6905756M }}</ref> It began "in Chauncy Hall on {{start date and age|1829|06|25|df=y|p=y}}. On 13 August 1829 it formed its classes and made provisions for lectures and debates."<ref>{{cite journal |author=Helen R. Deese and Guy R. Woodall |year=1986 |title=A Calendar of Lectures Presented by the Boston Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge (1829-1847) |journal=Studies in the American Renaissance }}</ref> Annual members' "exhibitions" of elocution took place in various venues around town, such as the Masonic Temple (1832), Tremont Hall (1839) and the Odeon (1840).<ref name=abe /><ref>{{citation |title=Elocution class of the Boston Lyceum |work= The Essayist |volume=1 |number=4 |date= April 1832 }}</ref> Leaders included<ref name=register1844>{{citation |url=https://archive.org/stream/pocketalmanackfo1844amer |title=Massachusetts Register and United States Calendar for 1844 |year=1779 }}</ref> George Bancroft, Timothy Claxton,<ref>{{citation |author=James D. Watkinson |title=Useful Knowledge? Concepts, Values, and Access in American Education, 1776-1840 |work=History of Education Quarterly |volume= 30 |year= 1990 }}</ref> James T. Fields, Abbott Lawrence, William H. Prescott, William D. Ticknor,<ref>{{citation |title=Old Corner Bookstore |work=New England Magazine|date= November 1903 }}</ref> and Amasa Walker.<ref>{{citation |title=Memorial Biographies of New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1853-1855 |volume= 7 |year= 1907 }}</ref> Among the many lecturers:<ref name=abe>{{citation |title=American Broadsides and Ephemera, Series 1 }}</ref> Nehemiah Adams, J. A. Bolles, David Paul Brown,<ref name=atlas8sep1841 /> Rufus Choate, William M. Cornell,<ref>{{citation |title=Daily Atlas |location=Boston |date=February 16, 1842 }}</ref> C. C. Emerson, James Pollard Espy,<ref name=atlas8sep1841 /> Edward Everett, Dr. Grigg,<ref>{{citation |title=Scientific Tracts and Family Lyceum |location=Boston |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hVAEAAAAYAAJ |date=March 15, 1834}}</ref> George S. Hillard,<ref>{{citation |title=Scientific Tracts and Family Lyceum |location=Boston |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hVAEAAAAYAAJ |date=January 1, 1834 }}</ref> Oliver Wendell Holmes,<ref name=atlas8sep1841>{{citation |title=Daily Atlas |location=Boston |date=September 8, 1841 }}</ref> Dr. C. T. Jackson,<ref>{{citation |title=Scientific Tracts and Family Lyceum |location=Boston |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hVAEAAAAYAAJ |date=January 15, 1834 }}</ref> N. Jones,<ref name=abe /> Rev. John Pierpont,<ref>{{citation |title=Daily Atlas |location=Boston |date=March 23, 1841 }}</ref> Edgar Allan Poe,<ref>{{citation |author=Ottavio M. Casale |title=The Battle of Boston: A Revaluation of Poe's Lyceum Appearance |work= American Literature |volume= 45 |year= 1973 }}</ref><ref>{{citation |author=Katherine Hemple Prown |title=The Cavalier and the Syren: Edgar Allan Poe, Cornelia Wells Walter, and the Boston Lyceum Incident |work= New England Quarterly |volume= 66 |year=1993 }}</ref><ref>{{citation |author=Kent P. Ljungquist |title=Poe's 'Al Aaraaf' and the Boston Lyceum: Contributions to Primary and Secondary Bibliography |work=Victorian Periodicals Review |volume= 28 |year= 1995 }}</ref> John Osborne Sargent,<ref>{{citation |author=John Osborne Sargent |title= A Lecture on the late improvements in steam navigation and the arts of naval warfare, with a brief notice of Ericsson's caloric engine, delivered before the Boston Lyceum |location= New York |publisher= Wiley and Putnam |year= 1844}}</ref> William H. Simmons, Charles Sumner,<ref>{{citation |title=Employment of time: lecture before the Boston Lyceum, delivered in the Federal Street Theatre, February 18, 1846 |work=Works of Charles Sumner |volume= 1 |location= Boston |publisher= Lee and Shepard |year= 1870 }}</ref> B. B. Thatcher, Henry Theodore Tuckerman, Amasa Walker, and E.M.P. Wells.

==Debates== Some of the questions formally debated by members: * 1832: "Can businessmen possessing the advantages afforded by Lyceums and similar associations, qualify themselves as well for the highest trusts and most responsible duties of public stations, as professional men of scientific and literary attainments?" * 1834: "Does the multiplicity of societies at the present day, on the whole, impede individual action?"<ref name=abe /> * 1835: "Do moral or physical causes have the greatest influence on determining national character?"<ref name=abe />

==See also== * Lyceum movement * Josiah Holbrook

==References== {{reflist|2}}

==Further reading== * {{citation |title=Annual Report of the Board of Managers of the Boston Lyceum |location= Boston }} 1829-1846? * {{citation |title=Family Lyceum |volume=1 |date=October 13, 1832 }} * {{citation |author=Howard M. Wach |title='Expansive Intellect and Moral Agency': Public Culture in Antebellum Boston |work= Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society |series=3rd series |volume= 107 |year=1995 |page= 30–56 }}

Category:1829 establishments in Massachusetts Category:History of Boston Category:19th century in Boston Category:Education in Boston Category:Lyceum movement Category:Organizations based in Boston