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		BB31: French Library and Cultural Center 53 Marlborough Street Originally organized by members of French-American organizations working toward the liberation of France during World War II, the French Library and Cultural Center opened in 1945. Many women have been involved in creating and expanding the library. Led by Belle P. Rand (1869-1956), ten women and men, half French and half Americans, signed the articles of incorporation. Boston sculptor Katharine Lane Weems (1899-1989) donated her mansion to the Library in 1961. Under the leadership of Edna Doriot, an adjacent building was acquired in 1976. The goal of the center is to promote French language and culture. In addition to maintaining its library and archives, the French Library sponsors a film program, translation services, and cultural programs including a Bastille Day celebration with dancing on Marlborough Street.
		BB32: Home of Isabella Stewart Gardner 150 (152) Beacon Street While she lived at this address, Isabella Stewart Gardner (1840-1924) created one of Boston's most notable places, the Gardner Museum, a magnificent Renaissance Palace located in the Fenway. She called it Fenway Court. Opened in 1903, the museum houses a world-renowned permanent art collection. Her goal was to educate and provide pleasure for the public "forever." Gardner first displayed her paintings in this Beacon Street building which, like Fenway Court, was always filled with flowers and where she was the center of a salon of early 20th century artists, musicians, and writers. Considered an eccentric by some and a genius by others, Gardner was known for her independent attitude and support of the talent in others on her own terms. (For Emerson College, see BB28) "...her people work as they feel she would have wanted them to do and the place must always remain live for that was the idea in the original conception [of Fenway Court] and in the execution of the idea, a living message of beauty in art to each generation." -- Olga Monks, Isabella Stewart Gardner's niece, in a letter written shortly after Gardner's death in 1924.
		BB33: Gibson House Museum 137 Beacon Street When Catherine Hammond Gibson (1804-1888) had her home built on Beacon Street in 1860, she was a pioneer in the settlement of the Back Bay which was built on newly-filled land. Her husband, John Gardner Gibson, a sugar merchant, had been lost at sea and so Catherine moved to the house with her son, Charles Hammond Gibson. Charles Gibson's wife, Rosamond Warren Gibson (1846-1934), moved into the mansion in 1871. She had received the traditional education given to upper-class women in her day, learning French and taking dancing lessons from dancing master Lorenzo Papanti. When the Gibson House opened to the public in 1957, Marjorie Drake Ross (1901-1997), a specialist on the decorative arts and author of The Book of Boston series, helped to acquire appropriate objects for the Gibson House and directed the cataloging of the collection. Today, museum tours include interpretive stories of life both "upstairs" and "downstairs" in Victorian Boston. The Victorian Society's New England chapter has been based here since 1974. The society is an advocate for historic preservation, and offers walking tours and lectures on the Victorian era.