This blog post was written by Andrew White Because we don’t know when Shakespeare was born, only that he was christened on April 26, 1564, we agree to assume he was born a few days before that on April 23rd. We have a better idea of what Shakespeare looked like. Both the engraving in the First …
In March of 1926, the Rosenbach brothers had made it. Abe was traveling back and forth to England for high profile and wealthy clients, brokering deals for some of the rarest and most historically important books in the Western Hemisphere. Phil ran the retail side of the business, managing two stores filled with highly provenanced …
This blog post was written by Andrew White The lovely lady Harry Belafonte is addressing here is the modernist poet Marianne Moore, whose archive resides with us at The Rosenbach. For one week in February of 1968 Harry Belafonte hosted The Tonight Show, and Moore was one of his guests. The Rosenbach has handwritten notes of …
This blog post was written by Andrew White With letters, photographs, first editions, and manuscripts of Oscar Wilde in our collections, many facets of Wilde and his life can be glimpsed at The Rosenbach. So much so, I sometimes struggle with what exactly to foreground: his spectacular gift for words, his careening success, or his …
The Rosenbach’s mission is to foster inquiry, learning, and creativity inspired by our collections. Read on to explore The Rosenbach’s holdings and stay tuned for additional content. Please consider a donation to The Rosenbach to help us continue offering innovative content both virtually and in-person when we are able to meet again. At-home learning resources …
This blog post was written by Andrew White Alexandre Dumas’s father was one of Napoleon’s generals, nicknamed “Hercules” by the emperor, and “Black Devil” by France’s enemies; Dumas’s surname came from a paternal grandmother, Marie-Cessette Dumas, an Afro-Caribbean woman held in slavery on what is now Haiti. In his career as a writer, the colossally …
Every year, the world celebrates James Joyce’s epic Ulysses on June 16th to commemorate Leopold Bloom’s fictional journey through the streets of Dublin. Over the past 25+ years, The Rosenbach’s Bloomsday Festival has grown into a lively, day-long celebration that draws literature lovers from around the country at the beginning of each summer. In 2018 …
This blog post was written by Andrew White Finding a letter in The Rosenbach archive written in the hand of the great Alain LeRoy Locke was quite an event here on Delancey Place. The letter came to light while we were looking through Rosenbach Company files for information on our manuscript of Batuala, a novel by the French …
“‘Exhibit’ is a noun, but it is also a verb, meaning to show or display. Show or display what? Stuff. Not pictures of stuff or descriptions of stuff, but stuff. And the use of real, physical stuff…is what sets exhibits apart from books, TV, the Internet, etc.” – Eugene Dillenburg, “What, if Anything, is a Museum?” In Exhibitionist, spring, 2011. …
In 2019 we welcomed three new members to our board, including a new representative of the Free Library of Philadelphia Foundation Board of Directors. Emily Cavanagh, Lisa Washington, and Gene LeFevre each bring their own expertise and passion for our mission. We hope you’ll join us in welcoming them to the board and The Rosenbach community. …