Boston Art Club (first) is established.

[1854] The organization of 20 artists meets initially in a rented building at today’s 62 Boylston Street (then 64 Boylston Street) or in one another’s studios. Membership is opened to non-artists in 1870. The club soon reaches its limit of 800 members, but only 1 in are 8 artists. The result is that it becomes more of a social club where, according to one of its founders, Samuel Gerry, “the palette and the palate seem to thrive together.” The club holds annual, juried exhibitions of contemporary art and several other exhibitions each year. Women are not admitted until the club experiences financial troubles during the Depression. The organization moves to new building (second) on at the corner of Dartmouth and Newbury Streets in 1882.*