Romance at the Rosenbach

Love is in the library: over the holidays, two visitors got engaged while on a tour of the historic house. Admittedly, some of us were in on the plan. One of our artistic staff members created a library display case with a copy of the bride-to-be’s favorite book, Jane Eyre, opened to the page with the famous line “Reader, I …

Frankenstein200 at the Rosenbach

On January 1, 1818, the London publishing house Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones published a book titled Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus. The publication did not name its author, but the book had an preface written by Percy Bysshe Shelley and a dedication to writer and philosopher William Godwin, so some readers assumed that the …

Bringing the science of Frankenstein & Dracula to life

In 1803, London was shocked by a public experiment conducted by an Italian scientist named Giovanni Aldini—nephew of Luigi Galvani, whose experiments with electrical currents gave the term galvanism its name. Aldini acquired the body of a recently executed criminal (a perfectly legal transaction, thanks to England’s Murder Act of 1752) and applied electric stimulus to the …

Sink your teeth into DRACULA this November

Dracula takes over the Rosenbach in November, which is not only appropriate because of our exhibition, Frankenstein & Dracula: Gothic Monsters, Modern Science, but also because November 8 is Bram Stoker’s birthday. Here’s what we have on tap: November 9, join us as we celebrate the new issue of the Journal of Dracula Studies.  Editors …

The Rosenbach welcomes distinguished visitors to the rare book library

The Rosenbach has been a hub of activity lately: installation is well underway for our upcoming exhibition Frankenstein & Dracula: Gothic Monsters, Modern Science; we hosted the Librarian of Congress, Dr. Carla Hayden last week; on Monday, we welcomed the Association of International Bibliophiles; and Tuesday we kicked off the fall programming season with an In Conversation with the Rosenbach event …

Yolanda Wisher’s Rent Parties celebrate creative communities

This Thursday, we’ll celebrate the first of Yolanda Wisher’s Rent Parties, a quarterly event that celebrates the literary past with readings by contemporary poets and music performance by Yolanda Wisher and her house band, The Afroeaters. The tradition of the rent party dates back to the Harlem Renaissance, when communal gatherings of artists and musicians fed the outpouring …