The recent precipitation has precipitated my desire to showcase some of the wonderful snow and ice sculptures that I have run across in my travels around the web. They’re not necessarily local, or from this year, but they seemed in the Rosen-spirit to me. Here’s a great Wild Thing snow sculpture from 2009. Photograph by …
Whether you’ve just wrapped up your holiday gift-giving or you’re currently planning and shopping, I thought this letter from Eleanor Elkins Widener offered a poignant reminder of the power of holiday traditions. Eleanor Elkins Widener, autograph letter signed to Philip H. Rosenbach. [December 1912?]. RCo I:181:31 Eleanor Elkins Widener, autograph letter signed to Philip H. …
In last week’s blog post we wished Bram Stoker a happy birthday; this week it is Marianne Moore’s turn. She was born on November 15, 1887, which would make today her 126th birthday! Here at the Rosenbach we celebrated on Wednesday with a great talk by Moore scholar Linda Leavell on her new Moore biography, …
Going back to a Rosen-post of a few weeks ago on ink blots, today’s Google Doodle is for Hermann Rorschach, in honor of his 129th birthday. November 8 is also the birthday of Bram Stoker; he would have been 166 today–he had his own birthday Google Doodle last year for his 165th. Of course the …
November 1st is All Saints Day, so it seemed a good time to showcase a few of the “saintly” objects in the Rosenbach collection. According to legend, St. Barbara was confined in a tower by her father, a wealthy pagan. While her father was away, Barbara had a bathhouse he had commissioned built with three …
Although its title sounds perfect for Halloween, this small book actually has little to do with actual ghosts. The Ghosts of My Friends turns out to be an unusual form of autograph book. As its instructions indicate, one is supposed to have one’s friends sign a page and then fold the page in half to …
Last week we talked about a Washington letter that is currently on loan to Mount Vernon; this week we bring you another example of the Rosenbach’s collections making an impact beyond our home on Delancey Place. If you’ve been on a Rosenbach house tour, you know that our walls are hung thick with paintings by …
One of our George Washington letters written from Mount Vernon has gone home for a visit, so to speak. The December 4, 1788 letter to Arthur Young is currently on loan to Mount Vernon for their exhibit Take Note! George Washington as a Reader. George Washington, autograph letter signed to Arthur Young, 4 December 1788. …
Our mystery object from last week was, as its box explains, a Fiske Reading Machine. Fiske Reading Machine. 2005.0015. Rosenbach Museum & Library Fiske Reading Machine. 2005.0015. Rosenbach Museum & Library The Fiske Reading Machine was a magnifying device that was intended to be used to read “micro books” (as its instructions call them), thereby …
Okay Rosenbloggers, it’s time to put on your thinking caps and guess the identity of this week’s mystery object from the recesses of the Rosenbach. Here are two views of our mystery object–folded up and unfolded. I’ll give you a hint–it’s not something you’d find at your optometrist’s office, but is actually related to reading. …