Boston Public Library
Central Branch, Copley Square
While out-of-town visitors can’t borrow books, at the Copley Square branch of the Boston Public Library they can admire the paintings, sculpture, lofty Renaissance Revival architecture, and a first floor gallery with controversial murals by Jean Singer Sargent.
Pierre Puvis de Chavannes’ murals caused less pearl clutching.
The BPL is the first large free municipal library in the US (the Boston Athenaeum is older, but members-only). D
isplays change often, and include first edition Shakespeare, medieval manuscripts, and Old Master Prints.