Anyone else getting tired of April showers already? Complaining about the weather is a time-honored tradition, and here are some rain-themed illustrations from English comic illustrator George Cruikshank to tide you over until the sun comes out. George Cruikshank. April from The comic almanack for 1835. London, 1835. 1954.1880.3200 George Cruikshank. Boys returning to school …
Come snow or sleet or freezing rain, things keep humming along here at the Rosenbach. We’ve been especially busy of late since we’ve been installing two new exhibits at the same time! Raving Beauty, a companion installation to Joseph Hallman’s upcoming performance, is now in the Drawing Room gallery. It wasn’t scheduled to open until …
The newest Jane Eyre film comes to Philly’s Ritz Five today, with Mia Wasikowska of Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland playing Jane. I’m hoping to see it next weekend, but if anyone gets there sooner, drop a comment to let us know your thoughts–my friend expressed approval that they made Jane look sufficiently plain in …
Happy St. Patrick’s Day! What better day to check out our new Joyce exhibit–Exile Among Expats! Also, a hat tip to the Biblioklept blog for reminding me of the great humorous recounting of Irish heroes in the Cyclops episode of Ulysses (the blog also has a scan of Joyce’s appearance in the 1901 Irish census): …
As I mentioned a couple of weeks back in my original 6 Degrees of Rosenbach post, it’s slightly scary sometimes how many connections there are between disparate items in the Rosenbach collection. This was brought back to me (again) in a conversation with our Librarian, Elizabeth Fuller, after an event we held last week with …
Inspired by this week’s Oscars, which I did in fact watch, it seemed a fitting time to highlight some of the various awards and medals in the Rosenbach’s collection. (By the way, if you’ve seen The King’s Speech you might enjoy this Washington Post article about history and the movies) I thought I’d start with …
Quick, what 1885 poem by Hoosier poet James Whitcomb Riley was the namesake of a comic strip that debuted in 1924? This exact question came up when I was playing Quizzo with some friends on Tuesday night. (If you are not familiar with it, Quizzo is a bar trivia game played on teams) It was …
Exile Among Expats: James Joyce in Paris opens next Wednesday and we’re hard at work… While you’re waiting for Joyce, here are a couple random news tidbits to keep you busy: Last week, marine archaeologists in Hawaii announced that they’d found the shipwrecked remains of the whale ship Two Brothers, captained by George Pollard. Why …
Just after sunrise on February 10, 1676 the town of Lancaster, Massachusetts was attacked as part of King Philip’s War. (At the time it would have still been considered 1675, since the new year did not begin until March 1) The town’s minister, Joseph Rowlandson, was away in Boston seeking defense aid from the colonial …
It’s been a good week for the Rosenbach, what with coverage about the Sendak mural from the Philadelphia Inquirer and NPR as well as lots of other great press! If the stories got you intrigued, you should stop by on Wednesdays from 12-1 or from 6-7 to see the mural conservation in action. I’ve had …