Workshop | Calligraphy: The Art of the Hebrew Letter | In-Person
September 22, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
November 3, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
February 23, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
May 18, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
In this four-part workshop series, explore the creativity and connection that live within the art of Hebrew lettering.
![[SOLD OUT] Behind the Bookcase Tour | The Duties of the Tea-Table: Exploring the History and Culture of Tea | In-Person](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/66fb68a83ed38c0c99c762f9/1739667007848-MCLFN0L33ML12PPQGL4R/Duties-of-the-Tea-Table-graphic.jpg)
[SOLD OUT] Behind the Bookcase Tour | The Duties of the Tea-Table: Exploring the History and Culture of Tea | In-Person
This tour will explore the global, cross-cultural connections forged via the thriving tea market in Europe in the 1600s and 1700s, as well as the role tea drinking played in the cultural history of the British Empire.
Book Club | The Power of Bridging by john a. powell – A People’s Friend Program | In-Person
Esteemed civil rights scholar john a. powell offers a framework for building connection across differences through the practice of bridging.
Workshop | Authentic Heart: Yin Yoga Illuminated by the Work and Life of Mercedes de Acosta | In-Person
This two-hour workshop, co-led by yogi Liza Seltzer and Rosenbach John C. Haas Director Kelsey Scouten Bates, will introduce you to de Acosta’s work and legacy and invite you to take a deep dive into what it means to be truly authentic.
Behind the Bookcase Tour | Book Arts: The World Between the Covers | In-Person
In this tour, we’ll connect historical treasures of the Rosenbach collections to the contemporary creative field of Book Arts.
Workshop | Book Arts: Printing America’s Founding Documents – A People’s Friend Program | In-Person
In this hands-on printing workshop, you will use a tabletop press to create your own, personal copies of U.S. founding documents–such as the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights—complemented by a selection of important engravings from the Rosenbach’s holdings.
Book Club | The Body in the Library Book Club: Nekesa Afia, Dead Dead Girls | In-Person
This is the third and final session of this series of The Body in the Library Book Club. In this series we celebrate the centennial of the Harlem Renaissance by rediscovering talented mystery writers from the era, and then engage with recent mystery novels set in early 20th-century Harlem. During this session we will be focusing on Nekesa Afia’s, Dead Dead Girls (2021)
Course | The Sonnet in English with Sean Hughes | Virtual Program
In this course, we’ll explore how great poets across the centuries have used the sonnet. Authors will likely include William Shakespeare, Gwendolyn Brooks, John Keats, Christina Rosetti, John Donne, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Terrance Hayes, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Wanda Coleman, William Butler Yeats, and Percy Shelley. This course will be enjoyable for both people who are new to reading poetry and aficionados alike.
Member Event | Uncle Umberto’s Orchard with Frederic Tuten and Mark Fischer | In-Person
Join us and Plain Wrapper Press Redux publisher, Mark Fischer, at a Members Event centered on Uncle Umberto’s Orchard by Frederic Tuten.
Biblioventures | Sherlock Monthly | Virtual
November 16, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
December 14, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
January 11, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
February 15, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
March 15, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
April 19, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
May 17, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
June 21, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Our Sherlock Mondays Biblioventure was such a success, we’ve decided to continue exploring the Sherlockian canon with Sherlock Monthly. Every month, we’ll focus on one Sherlock Holmes adventure in the order they were first published.
Workshop | Book Arts: Book Structures in Early America | In-Person
Experience the thrill of historical bookbinding at this workshop, where you will make your own unique journal with the guidance of Ramon Townsend, a local master bookbinder.
Excursion | An Afternoon in Enlightenment Paris | In-Person
Join Andalusia, the Rosenbach, and the Alliance Française de Philadelphie for a special opportunity to spend an afternoon in the library of one of early America’s most important intellects, engaging with his collection of 18th-century books.
![Behind the Bookcase Tour | [SOLD OUT] Mary Shelley: The Godmother of Goth | In-Person](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/66fb68a83ed38c0c99c762f9/1739901818040-VZRMPCEX1KFSJBPZXZMC/Mary-Shelley-Tour-graphic.jpg)
Behind the Bookcase Tour | [SOLD OUT] Mary Shelley: The Godmother of Goth | In-Person
In this tour we will explore the life and works of this radical, proto-feminist, and quintessential Romantic as we sift through early editions of her works, along with manuscripts and letters of her husband, poet Percy Shelley, and the couple’s questionable company.
Workshop | Moods: Yin Yoga Illuminated by the Poems of Mercedes de Acosta | In-Person
Join yogi Liza Seltzer and Rosenbach John C. Haas Director Kelsey Scouten Bates for this poetry-inspired yin yoga practice. You’ll be guided into passive, longer-held poses that invoke both stillness and openness in body and mind; you’ll listen from this place of openness to the writing poet Charles Hanson Towne describes in his introduction to Moods as having “a haunting quality, a breath of mystery, as though a ghost walked into a garden.”
Course | The Civil War Diary of Emma Mordecai with Melissa R. Klapper | In-Person
Join the Rosenbach for a special seminar on Jewish women’s history in the beautiful parlor of the Rosenbach brothers’ home on Delancey Place. Led by gifted teacher and scholar Melissa Klapper, the course explores the new book The Civil War Diary of Emma Mordecai.
Excursion | New York International Antiquarian Book Fair 2025 | In-Person
April 4, 2025
April 5, 2025
Every year, Rosenbach staff and our Delancey Society journey north to New York, to experience the antiquarian book fair, visit the city’s cultural institutions, and get up close and personal with the Rosenbach’s collection development strategy. This year, the Delancey Society will kick off the weekend on Friday, April 4 with an exclusive visit to the private collection of Susan Jaffe Tane, followed by a cocktail reception at Freeman’s|Hindman auction house. On Saturday, April 5, we will enjoy a group brunch at The East Pole followed by a curated tour of the Fair with members of the Rosenbach’s Department of Outreach & Engagement, stopping at the booths of leading booksellers for insights into the book trade—past, present, and future.
Biblioventures | Sherlock Monthly | Virtual
November 16, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
December 14, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
January 11, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
February 15, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
March 15, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
April 19, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
May 17, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
June 21, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Our Sherlock Mondays Biblioventure was such a success, we’ve decided to continue exploring the Sherlockian canon with Sherlock Monthly. Every month, we’ll focus on one Sherlock Holmes adventure in the order they were first published.
Rosenbacchanal 2025
Rosenbacchanal 2025: The Power of the Book will feature a conversation between writer and essayist Adam Gopnik, best known as a staff writer at The New Yorker for the past forty years, and Honoree Arthur Spector, the Rosenbach’s Chair Emeritus. Their discussion will explore the allure, the potency, and the omnipresence of one the most powerful objects the world has ever known: the book.
![[ONE SEAT LEFT] The Republic of Letters: The Rosenbach’s American History Book Club, in Partnership with Carpenters’ Hall](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/66fb68a83ed38c0c99c762f9/1739813524817-0F4LWU0G67ZCAU0DHBQI/Republic-of-Letters-graphic.jpg)
[ONE SEAT LEFT] The Republic of Letters: The Rosenbach’s American History Book Club, in Partnership with Carpenters’ Hall
The book club’s first season is titled “The Founders, Revisited.” Inspired by rare books and manuscripts in the Rosenbach and Carpenters’ Hall collections, this season’s book club meetings will critically examine the contributions and complicated legacies of Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Frederick Douglass, and Benjamin Rush.
![[SOLD OUT] Book-Club | The Ladies of the House of Love: “Horrid Novels”: Gothic Inspirations for Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey | In-Person](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/66fb68a83ed38c0c99c762f9/1739909001171-JU5KCTYLTS7TVHWX5MQ5/Northanger-course-graphic.jpg)
[SOLD OUT] Book-Club | The Ladies of the House of Love: “Horrid Novels”: Gothic Inspirations for Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey | In-Person
May 13, 2025 | 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm
June 3, 2025 | 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm
July 8, 2025 | 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm
September 9, 2025 | 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm
October 14, 2025 | 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm
November 11, 2025 | 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm
December 9, 2025 | 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm
This special book club season of The Ladies of the House of Love will begin with three iconic Gothic works, including one, Ann Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794), that Austen heavily satirizes in Northanger Abbey. Then, the club will explore lesser-known books that Austen references as “horrid novels” in Northanger. Finally, on December 9, 2025, just one week before Austen’s 250th birthday, the club will read Northanger Abbey and hold a birthday party for the Authoress. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to immerse yourself in the world of the Gothic as part of a community of fellow book lovers and Janeites!
Biblioventures | Sherlock Monthly | Virtual
November 16, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
December 14, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
January 11, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
February 15, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
March 15, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
April 19, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
May 17, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
June 21, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Our Sherlock Mondays Biblioventure was such a success, we’ve decided to continue exploring the Sherlockian canon with Sherlock Monthly. Every month, we’ll focus on one Sherlock Holmes adventure in the order they were first published.
The 2025 Bloomsday Festival
Every June 16, we gather together to read from Joyce’s Ulysses. It’s a beloved and foundational event for this institution, the home of Joyce’s manuscript of a novel that continues to inspire, scandalize, and thrill.
Biblioventures | Sherlock Monthly | Virtual
November 16, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
December 14, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
January 11, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
February 15, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
March 15, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
April 19, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
May 17, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
June 21, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Our Sherlock Mondays Biblioventure was such a success, we’ve decided to continue exploring the Sherlockian canon with Sherlock Monthly. Every month, we’ll focus on one Sherlock Holmes adventure in the order they were first published.
![[SOLD OUT] Course | Ulysses Weekly with Robert Berry | Virtual Program](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/66fb68a83ed38c0c99c762f9/1739663006621-SKYKMABRWAGNMLU3CP1K/Ulysses-Weekly-graphic.jpg)
[SOLD OUT] Course | Ulysses Weekly with Robert Berry | Virtual Program
February 20, 2025 | 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm
February 27, 2025 | 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm
March 6, 2025 | 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm
March 13, 2025 | 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm
March 20, 2025 | 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm
March 27, 2025 | 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm
April 3, 2025 | 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm
April 10, 2025 | 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm
April 17, 2025 | 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm
April 24, 2025 | 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm
May 1, 2025 | 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm
May 8, 2025 | 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm
May 15, 2025 | 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm
May 22, 2025 | 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm
May 29, 2025 | 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm
June 5, 2025 | 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm
This immersive weekly course will help readers explore (and enjoy) the intricacies, enigmas and hilarities of Ulysses. First time readers of the novel will find many resources for understanding this challenging work.
![[SOLD OUT] Course | Huck and James: Reading Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Percival Everett’s James with Edward Whitley | Virtual](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/66fb68a83ed38c0c99c762f9/1739657552210-485BV110BPRMDRBHLDKF/HuckJames-Course-Graphic.png)
[SOLD OUT] Course | Huck and James: Reading Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Percival Everett’s James with Edward Whitley | Virtual
In this five-week online class, we will spend the first two weeks reading Huckleberry Finn. For our third meeting, we will explore the legacy of Huck and Jim in African American culture with a series of short readings from authors such as Toni Morrison, Ralph Ellison, and John Keene. We will spend the final two weeks reading Everett’s James.
Biblioventures | The Picture of Dorian Gray | Virtual
February 24, 2025 | 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
March 3, 2025 | 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
March 10, 2025 | 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
March 17, 2025 | 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
March 24, 2025 | 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Join us on a new Biblioventure with a special subscription-only show on Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray
Book Arts Workshop: Locked Love Letters
Send a secret love note in this hands-on workshop exploring the custom of manipulating a letter so it forms its own elaborate sealed envelope–to be opened only by its intended recipient!
Workshop | Bookmaking and Book Arts with Bryn Michelson-Ziegler | In-Person
Join Rosenbach Assistant Curator Bryn Michelson-Ziegler and the Young Friends of the Rosenbach to learn how to make your own buttonhole stitch book.
Biblioventures | Sherlock Monthly | Virtual
November 16, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
December 14, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
January 11, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
February 15, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
March 15, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
April 19, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
May 17, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
June 21, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Our Sherlock Mondays Biblioventure was such a success, we’ve decided to continue exploring the Sherlockian canon with Sherlock Monthly. Every month, we’ll focus on one Sherlock Holmes adventure in the order they were first published.
Reading Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and The Last Man with Vivian Papp | Virtual Course
In this class we will map a chronological route through these two texts from 1818 to today. Shelley will have us rethinking our positions as human beings in a world where the giddy rate of technological advancement far exceeds our potential to maintain even the slightest semblance of balance.
![[SOLD OUT] Reading Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey with Claudia L. Johnson | Virtual Course](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/66fb68a83ed38c0c99c762f9/1739662053855-UYWMZOXYN0TVOCW86SMH/Northanger-course-graphic.jpg)
[SOLD OUT] Reading Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey with Claudia L. Johnson | Virtual Course
Our class will examine Austen’s simple-seeming language carefully. Having told us that “A woman, especially if she have the misfortune of knowing anything, should conceal it as well as she can,” we will consider the knowledge this novel conceals beneath its sunny un-Gothic surface.
Reading the Harlem Renaissance with Michele Lisa Simms-Burton | Virtual Course
Informed by the Rosenbach’s Langston Hughes and Alaine Locke holdings, during the four sessions of this course, we will read and discuss works by four prominent Harlem Renaissance writers and intelligentsia: Alain Locke, Langston Hughes, Nella Larsen, and Zora Neale Hurston.
![POSTPONED] [LIMITED SPOTS AVAILABLE] Yoga Workshop: Refuge: Hatha Yoga & Rumi’s The Guest House – A People’s Friend Program](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/66fb68a83ed38c0c99c762f9/1738260615619-P7WKATBW3QMGZ05JXFBC/Rumi-Yoga-825x450.jpg)
POSTPONED] [LIMITED SPOTS AVAILABLE] Yoga Workshop: Refuge: Hatha Yoga & Rumi’s The Guest House – A People’s Friend Program
Give yourself the gift of an hour on your mat, moving mindfully while exploring themes from this popular Rumi poem, including self-awareness, acceptance and gratitude. The gentle flow sequence will be suitable for all levels. ..
![[POSTPONED] [SEATS AVAILABLE] The History and Future of the American Presidency – A People’s Friend Program](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/66fb68a83ed38c0c99c762f9/1738098994716-V0VVKGTEU7FJIBP4PTFK/History-and-Future-American-Presidency-BTB-825x450.png)
[POSTPONED] [SEATS AVAILABLE] The History and Future of the American Presidency – A People’s Friend Program
On the eve of the presidential inauguration, join the Rosenbach Museum & Library for a consideration of the development of the office of the presidency over the last 249 years. View rare books and manuscripts documenting presidential history from George Washington to Franklin Delano Roosevelt, discuss how the powers of the executive office fit into the separation of powers as outlined in the U.S. Constitution, and reflect on the evolving role of the presidency in the wider work of the federal government and American national life. The tour will include time for reflection and dialogue among participants about the executive office and civic participation.
![[SOLD OUT] Fakes and Forgeries: Forging Shakespeare | Behind the Bookcase](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/66fb68a83ed38c0c99c762f9/1738094464202-HG9V4HJXPMOXFUKSCHLF/Fakes-and-Forgeries-BtB-825x450.jpg)
[SOLD OUT] Fakes and Forgeries: Forging Shakespeare | Behind the Bookcase
In the world of antiquity and collecting, how do experts identify the subtle (or glaring!) difference between authenticity and forgery? In this tour, we’ll explore this question with a wide range of objects in the Rosenbach’s collection. We’ll look at some of Shakespeare’s greatest works, a mug that once belonged to George Washington, a manuscript draft by Edgar Allan Poe, and in this special edition of the popular Fakes & Forgeries tour, we will spend additional time examining several Shakespeare forgeries by William Henry Ireland.
![[SOLD OUT] Reading Dracula with Edward G. Pettit | Virtual Course](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/66fb68a83ed38c0c99c762f9/1739664724980-UNEYK0E63HMPQNXW8CUD/Dracula-course-graphic.png)
[SOLD OUT] Reading Dracula with Edward G. Pettit | Virtual Course
January 23, 2025 | 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm
February 6, 2025 | 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm
February 20, 2025 | 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm
March 6, 2025 | 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm
March 20, 2025 | 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm
In this course we’ll consider how Dracula highlights the fears and anxieties of the culture that produced it and discover how this vampire story is just as much about themes of difference and otherness, race and ethnicity, and sexuality and gender, issues still relevant for contemporary readers.
Biblioventures | Sherlock Monthly | Virtual
November 16, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
December 14, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
January 11, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
February 15, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
March 15, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
April 19, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
May 17, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
June 21, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Our Sherlock Mondays Biblioventure was such a success, we’ve decided to continue exploring the Sherlockian canon with Sherlock Monthly. Every month, we’ll focus on one Sherlock Holmes adventure in the order they were first published.
Biblioventures | Sherlock Monthly | Virtual
November 16, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
December 14, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
January 11, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
February 15, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
March 15, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
April 19, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
May 17, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
June 21, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Our Sherlock Mondays Biblioventure was such a success, we’ve decided to continue exploring the Sherlockian canon with Sherlock Monthly. Every month, we’ll focus on one Sherlock Holmes adventure in the order they were first published.
Biblioventures | Sherlock Monthly | Virtual
November 16, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
December 14, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
January 11, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
February 15, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
March 15, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
April 19, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
May 17, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
June 21, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Our Sherlock Mondays Biblioventure was such a success, we’ve decided to continue exploring the Sherlockian canon with Sherlock Monthly. Every month, we’ll focus on one Sherlock Holmes adventure in the order they were first published.
![[SOLD OUT] Course | Reading Moby-Dick with Hester Blum | Virtual](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/66fb68a83ed38c0c99c762f9/1739835731325-Y7T5VCQWXY6INYG523VS/Moby-Dick-course-graphic.jpg)
[SOLD OUT] Course | Reading Moby-Dick with Hester Blum | Virtual
November 13, 2025 | 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm
December 11, 2025 | 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm
January 8, 2025 | 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm
February 12, 2025 | 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm
March 19, 2025 | 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm
April 9, 2025 | 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm
In this course, which welcomes first-time Melville readers and Moby-Dick obsessives alike, our discussions will range from the novel’s most thunderous, epic heights to its quirkiest, crudest jokes.
![[SOLD OUT] Reading Macbeth with Jim Casey | Virtual Course](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/66fb68a83ed38c0c99c762f9/1729608099815-MYSLRDHHK4C15WZBEOZ7/ladymacbeth.jpeg)
[SOLD OUT] Reading Macbeth with Jim Casey | Virtual Course
This course will explore the richness and depth of this remarkable text, with close consideration of the work’s language, action, characterization, worldview, and more.
Delancey Society Excursion: A Bibliophile’s Guide to Charlottesville
As the Rosenbach and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation prepare to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in 2026, we are pleased to offer a once-in-a-lifetime glimpse into the complex history of Jefferson’s famed plantation estate and the libraries he built and enjoyed there.