The Gloucester Lyceum (1830-1872) of Gloucester, Massachusetts, was an association for "the improvement of its members in useful knowledge, and the advancement of popular education." It incorporated in 1831.
From the 1830s through at least the 1860s, the Lyceum arranged lectures from notables such as: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., "the two Everetts, Choate, Sumner, Rantoul, Winthrop, Colfax, Greely, ... Parker, Curtis, Phillips, Bayard Taylor, Dr. Holland, Chapin, Starr King, Hillard, ... Beecher, Giles, Gough, Dr. Hayes, the Arctic explorer, Burlingame, ... Alger, Whipple, Murdoch, Vanderhoff, Bancroft, and Dana." From 1830, "meetings were held in Union Hall ... until 1844 when the Murray Institute was used for one season prior to the occupancy of the Town Hall."
In 1854 "the Lyceum opened its library on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons and evenings, with 1,400 volumes. It was located in the eastern parlor of the residence of F. G. Low on what was then the corner of Spring and Duncan Streets." Patrons could use the library for $1 per year; the fee was waived for those unable to afford it. In 1863 the library moved to Front Street; the building burned down in 1864. Thereafter it occupied rooms on Middle Street (in the Baptist church), and later on Front Street (in the Babson block). Much of the funding for the library came from "Samuel E. Sawyer, a Boston merchant, but a native of Gloucester."
The Lyceum became the Gloucester Lyceum and Sawyer Free Library under a new charter in 1872.
Lectures/Performances
1830
Hosea Hildreth
William Ferson
Mr. Spencer
Benjamin Crowninshield
Charles G. Putnam
Henry Prentiss
1832
John James Babson
1834
Mr. Ward
1835
George S. Hillard
A. H. Everett
Jerome V. C. Smith
Ezekiel W. Leach
Rev. Mr. Sewall
Daniel P. King
Rev. Mr. Withington
Rev. Mr. Fox
Samuel E. Cowes
A. L. Peirson
Rev. Mr. Williams
Rev. Mr. Worcester
John S. Williams
Rev. Mr. Thompson
George H. Devereux
R. S. Edes
1848
Henry David Thoreau
1858-1859
Henry Ward Beecher
Daniel C. Eddy
A. D. Mayo
Wendell Phillips
George Vandenhoff
George B. Loring
John G. Saxe
George D. Prentice
1860
Mendelssohn Quintette Club
Grace Greenwood
George Sumner
William W. Sylvester
William H. Millburn, "the blind preacher" George William Curtiss, "author of Trumps" Rufus Laighton Jr. Benjamin H. Smith Jr. William Hague