Now is the time for children to head back to school, so I pulled a few school-related items from the files. This photo, although unidentified, seems to be some sort of school/class photograph including the young Abie Rosenbach (the future Dr. R). He is seated at the far left of the front row with arms …
Last weekend marked the 200th anniversary of the burning of Washington during the War of 1812. British troops entered Washington in the afternoon of August 24, 1814 and set fire to the government buildings, including the White House and the Capitol building. The goal in sacking the city was symbolic rather than strategic; as Robert …
As the summer draws to a close, it’s time for one last trip to the beach. From the decreased traffic on my morning train ride I can tell that lots of folks are enjoying a well-deserved vacation this month. One of the great pleasures of a beach vacation is a chance to laze in the …
We asked this question of the visitors in Bescribbled, Nibbled, and Dog-Eared: Early American Children’s Books and we got quite a lot of answers! Visitors confess to having dropped books in the bathtub (I’ve done that), painted them, written in crayon, and having failed to read them (yup, done that one too). Readers have …
This week’s post comes from our collections intern, Jordan Rothschild. – – – – As the summer is here and it is time for travel I would like to share a few works related to travel from our collections. They come from two artists—one, a Renaissance Italian who spent time in Italy’s greatest cities and …
A month ago the Rosenblog marked the centennial of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand on June 28, 1914. This week marks the 100th anniversary of the beginning of World War I itself: on July 28th Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia and by August 4 Russia, Germany, and Britain had all entered the fray. Last …
The rise of the cellphone means that most of us now carry a camera in our pocket just about everywhere we go. Marianne Moore also had a pocket camera: a Vest Pocket Kodak, measuring 4 ¾” x 2 ½” by 1″, which is about the size of a modern smartphone, although a bit thicker. Kodak …
What do Joy to the World, How Doth the Little Busy Bee, When I Survey the Wondrous Cross, and I Sing the Mighty Power of God have in common? They were all written (the texts at least) by Isaac Watts, who was born on July 17, 1674, and so would turn 340 today (if you …
In March we told you about the conservation of one of our portrait miniatures and its loan to an exhibition commemmorating the 400th anniversary of the death of its probable artist, El Greco. Last month the exhibition closed (on Bloomsday) and I went to Toledo bring the portrait back. I headed to the Philadelphia airport …
Everyone knows the tongue twister: Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled Peppers:Did Peter Piper pick a peck of pickled Peppers?If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled Peppers,Where’s the peck of pickled Peppers Peter Piper picked? But did you know that Peter Piper had friends? The famous rhyme was first published in 1813 in …