By Marty Basch

A library’s jewels are usually found exclusively within the pages of its books. At the ornate hilltop Athenaeum in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom, artistic treasures also hang on the walls.

The landmark library and art gallery in St. Johnsbury features 19th century American and European paintings, including a collection of landscapes in the style of the Hudson River School and recreations of works like Rembrandt’s self-portrait and Dolci’s ‘‘Madonna and Child.’’

Red brick delight

The handsome red brick building, a National Historic Landmark, was designed by architect John Davis Hatch III and constructed in the Second Empire style. It was a gift to the people of the rural town in 1871 from wealthy philanthropist Horace Fairbanks, a former Vermont governor. His family invented and manufactured the first platform scale.

The library was named for Athena, Greek goddess of wisdom and art. The art gallery was added to the main building in 1873.

Come in

As you enter the library’s rich architecture is immediately apparent, with its glorious spiral staircases, spindled banisters, and polished woodwork.

Artwork is hung generously throughout the library’s two floors

from the quiet comfort of the Victorian reading rooms to the whimsy of the children’s room where the words of Dr. Seuss fill the shelves and murals like ‘‘The Song of Hiawatha,’’ inspired by the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem, adorn on the walls.

Outside the art gallery’s entrance, a large Matthew Wilson oil

portrait of benefactor Horace Fairbanks framed in gold leaf towers above a fireplace.

Donations of paintings by the Fairbanks family helped the collection grow from two and a half dozen to one hundred works.

Docent doings

Learning about the art takes many forms. A knowledgeable docent can talk about the large journals Fairbanks collected from around the world now behind glass.

Visitors can also borrow a guidebook called ‘‘Handbook of the

Art Collection,’’ which leads them through the alcoves. There are also a couple of tapes, one narrated by Mark ‘‘Eye on the Sky’’ Breen, a familiar voice on Vermont Public Radio, detailing the library and its collection.

One of the more popular works is John George Brown’s ‘‘Hiding in the Old Oak.’’ The painting offers a glimpse of a country childhood, as three girls play a game of hide and seek, tucked away in the tree’s cavity. In another favorite, Little Red Riding Hood points the wicked wolf to grandmother’s house in a 1866 painting by Seymour Joseph Guy.

Offering a regional take, Montpelier-born Thomas Waterman Wood captures a fading element of rural life in his 1874 painting ‘‘The Argument.’’ In it, three dyed-in-the-wool Vermonters sit by the wood stove in a general store discussing a story in the local newspaper.

Yosemite too

While there are many impressive works here, the centerpiece has to be Albert Bierstadt’s majestic ‘‘The Domes of the Yosemite.’’ The work initially hung in the Connecticut home of financier Legrand Lockwood who paid $25,000 for it in 1867. The western landscape features a valley with a misty waterfall, large cliffs and scattered trees.

Wandering through the buildings, it’s striking how art is found

everywhere. An elevator vestibule in the library houses works including a 32 inch plaster bust of Abraham Lincoln. When you take the stairs, you do so under the watchful eyes of a reproduction of Rafael’s ‘‘Sistine Madonna.’’

At the Athenaeum, Athena’s inspiration is everywhere.

One Tank Away

St. Johnsbury,  Vt. is

*181 miles from Springfield, Mass.

*296 miles from Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y.

*156 miles from Mason, N.H.

Photos are courtesy of the Athenaeum.