Registration
Admission for this tour is $30. Members receive exclusive discounts on our programs and courses. Not a member? Learn more.
Please check your spam folder for your email confirmation. If you have questions, please call (215) 732-1600 or email rsvp@rosenbach.org.
Registration opens for Delancey Society members on Friday, March 14, for Rosenbach members on Friday, March 21, and for the general public on Friday, March 28. Registration opens at 12:00 p.m. ET.
Description
The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood is best known for its stunning romantic, biblical, classical, and medieval-inspired paintings, produced alongside poetry and novels, illustrations, decorative art, and beautifully bound books. On this tour, explore the mythical, enchanting work of the Pre-Raphaelites through the Rosenbach’s collection, and then step into the life of the Pre-Raphaelite’s’ most recognizable muse, Elizabeth Eleanor Siddal, through the first popularly available edition of her poetry.
About Your Guides
Kyle Cassidy is a visual artist and photographer who has written a number of books, among them the viral sensation, This is What a Librarian Looks Like, which is made up of portraits of and interviews with more than 300 librarians. He has created three album covers for musician and horror-movie director John Carpenter, and most recently, he worked with arachnologist Dr. Caterina Scott to create a book about 135 days in the life of a spider.
Jennifer Summerfield is a Philadelphia-based actor and lover of English, American, and Russian literature. Her favorite roles include Olga in Checkhov’s Three Sisters, Ada Lovelace in Romulus Linney's Childe Byron, and the unnamed protagonist in Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper. She wrote and performed a one-woman show for the Rosenbach, Mary Shelley: Strange Star, in 2018.
Kyle and Jennifer have a long history of collaboration: together they produced a film of Henrik Ibsen’s proto-feminist play Hedda Gabler and adapted his 1879 play A Doll’s House to take place during lockdown in 2020. They’ve worked together on cookbooks, knitting books, travel books, and raising cats. They once threw a dressmaking and dueling party to promote Jennifer's production of Sense and Sensibility. Their latest collaboration is the first popularly available edition of poems by of Victorian poet and Pre-Raphaelite artist and model, Elizabeth Eleanor Siddal, which includes a companion volume of 48 photographs inspired by the poems, This is Only Earth, My Dear.
Behind the Bookcase: Hands-on Tours at The Rosenbach
Behind the Bookcase: Hands-on Tours offer unparalleled access to see, and even touch, rare and important items not usually on view to the public. Each program is dedicated to a different author, theme, or topic and grants a truly hands-on experience with materials in The Rosenbach’s inspiring collection.
See all upcoming tours here. Space is limited and advance registration is strongly recommended.