athenaeums

Noun

athenaeum (plural athenaeums or athenaea)

1. An association or institution for the advancement of learning, particularly in science or literature.
   • A panel of architects who might loosely be described as the local athenaeum of their profession are awaiting, anxiously, the next edition of the bimonthly journal that bears their names.1994 June 3, Michael Miner, “Will This Man Save Inland Architect?/A Simple Process”, in Chicago Reader
2. The reading room or library of such an association; (by extension) any reading room or library.
   • And this, too, may have been not unconnected with the gracious influence of the other sex as exhibited in a neighbouring athenaeum; and was accompanied by a gruesome spate of florid lyrics: some (happily) secret, and some exposed with needless hardihood in a college magazine.1921, Christopher Morley, Plum Pudding
3. A literary or scientific periodical, especially one similar to the London Athenaeum.

See all 4 meanings of athenaeum