06/05/2026
An important message from Executive Director & Keeper Tom Hardiman:
Many of you have already learned of my decision to take early retirement, effective July 31, after 26 years as your Keeper and Executive Director. We have achieved great things together, including the launch of our integrated digital catalog, which makes our collections accessible to researchers anywhere in the world. We have doubled our footprint on Market Square. The Athenæum is a model of financial and operational strength, with membership numbers and operating budgets nearly triple what they were 20 years ago.
I am particularly proud of the Athenæum’s role in establishing, after 35 years of effort, a legal framework to create a joint collections and research facility for all of Portsmouth’s major repositories of historical documents and artifacts. Planning, funding, and building the Portsmouth Archive Center will be a years-long project. It makes sense for me to pass the baton to someone who can take our team to the finish line.
Rest assured, you will still see me at the Athenæum, enjoying our beautiful historic spaces and delving into the books and documents I have loved and shared with you for so many years.
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📸 Tom Hardiman at the Athenæum's bicentennial dinner at the Wentworth-by-the-Sea in 2017. Courtesy of Tom Hardiman.
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