Boston Lyceum

The Boston Lyceum (est.1829) of Boston, Massachusetts was a civic association dedicated to popular education in the form of "lectures, discussions, ... declamation," and writing contests. It began "in Chauncy Hall on 25 June 1829. On 13 August 1829 it formed its classes and made provisions for lectures and debates." 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). Leaders included George Bancroft, Timothy Claxton, James T. Fields, Abbott Lawrence, William H. Prescott, William D. Ticknor, and Amasa Walker. Among the many lecturers: Nehemiah Adams, J.A. Bolles, David Paul Brown, Rufus Choate, William M. Cornell, C.C. Emerson, James Pollard Espy, Edward Everett, Dr. Grigg, George S. Hillard, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Dr. C.T. Jackson, N. Jones, Rev. John Pierpont, Edgar Allan Poe, John Osborne Sargent, William H. Simmons, Charles Sumner, B.B. Thatcher, Henry Theodore Tuckerman, Amasa Walker, and E.M.P. Wells.