If by your art, my dearest father, you have Put the wild waters in this roar, allay them. The sky, it seems, would pour down stinking pitch, But that the sea, mounting to the welkin’s cheek, Dashes the fire out For some reason, The Tempest seemed an appropriate choice for this week. And for today, …
So what are you going to be for Halloween this year? If you haven’t picked yet, perhaps you could go as Mistris Tannakin Skinker, the hog-faced woman. According to a 1640 pamphlet in our collection, Mistris Skinker was born in 1618 with the snout of a pig after her mother turned away a beggar woman …
We all know the appeal of new-car smell, but here at the Rosenbach we also know the appeal of old-book smell. Many of our collections objects have the generally pleasing smell of age, but I thought I’d point out a few particularly fragrant items that I would include on a “scratch-and-sniff” tour, if such a …
Two weeks ago Judy Guston, Elyse Poinsett and I had the opportunity to present at a symposium on Reaching and Teaching Through Material Culture, held at the Winterthur Museum. The three of us participated as part of a session on using technology and our presentation “A Tale of Two Programs: Using Technology Judiciously to Improve …
Here are the answers to the “detail detective” questions we posed two weeks ago. How many did you get correct? This unicorn is part of the British royal coat of arms on the magnificent Paul Storr candelabra in the dining room. This carved detail comes from the back of a chair in the first floor …
On the evening of September 23, twelve brave Philadelphia-area citizens came to the Rosenbach to attend the first of the Rosenbach Docent training sessions! Some faces were familiar and some had never been to the museum before. As each of the participants in the training course introduced themselves, we asked them to share a story …
You may not have tried this, but if you visit the Rosenbach with children there is a “detail detective” packet that your docent can provide for the house tour, which shows close-ups of collections objects and encourages kids to spot them on the tour. My own children were guinea pigs for this project and they …
After last week’s shout-out to the bicentennial of the War of 1812, this week we return to the Civil War 150 with the anniversary of the battle of Antietam coming up on Monday, September 17. The day after the battle, John Henry Brown, a painter living in Philadelphia wrote in his journal “Desperate fighting at …
Amidst the hoopla for the Dickens 200 and the Civil War 150, it is all too easy to overlook another anniversary this year–the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812. It’s a war that few Americans know much about, myself sadly included–when I tested my knowledge on an online 1812 quiz, I scored only 40% …
As summer winds down it seemed appropriate to highlight Dr. Rosenbach’s shore home in Strathmere, New Jersey. Here’s a map showing Strathmere (also known as Corson’s Inlet) in relation to some of the other shore areas. Dr. Rosenbach’s “Boat House” was manufactured by Sears and Roebuck. The home, with its lavish interiors, was actually …