Welcome to 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.
We’re delighted to announce several updates to the festival, inspired by feedback we received from you at last year’s event, with some additional special events. These updates invite more participation and create greater access to the Rosenbach’s collection:
• The day will begin at 12:00 p.m. with a special musical program at the Academy of Vocal Arts, right around the corner at 1920 Spruce Street.
• The Bloomsday public reading will begin at 1:00 p.m. in the Rosenbach’s garden, accessible through the museum lobby.
• Reader spots are open to the public for the first time! Register below!
• While the readings take place in the garden, we’ll also open the museum and historic house to present guided tours of our new gallery Treasures from the Rosenbach’s Collection: History of the Material Text and special presentations of collection materials every half hour! See the full schedule and register below.
• After our garden readings end at 6:00 p.m., we’ll reconvene on Delancey Place for a special one-woman performance. Molly’s Soliloquy at Sunset begins at 7:00 p.m. and will feature Philadelphia actor Kirsten Quinn and special musical performances!
• All Bloomsday readings, presentations, and performances are FREE to attend— We’ll see you June 16!
Register to attend the Bloomsday in the garden readings here
(includes Academy of Vocal Arts performances and Molly’s Soliloquy at Sunset)
12:00 - 6:00 p.m. and 7:00 - 8:30 p.m.
Register to read at Bloomsday
(Hourly spots available—Space is limited!)
Bloomsday Program Schedule
12:00 p.m.
Special musical performance at Academy of Vocal Arts, 1920 Spruce Street, just a block away from the Rosenbach
1:00 p.m.
Ulysses readings begin in the Rosenbach Museum & Library garden
Register individually for each of the guided programs you’d like to attend
(Space is limited!)
1:30 p.m.
The Odyssey of Ulysses from Manuscript to Print
Like the wanderings of the characters in Ulysses and the ancient epic that inspired it, the path of Joyce’s novel from the pages of the Rosenbach’s famous manuscript to the printed book was anything but straightforward. In this presentation you’ll see how Joyce shaped and re-shaped his text as it moved from one handwritten page to another, through the typewriter—and sometimes back again, with a side trip to magazine publication—to layers of printer’s proofs, and ultimately the book we know today.
2:00 p.m.
James Joyce in Translation: The Case of the Japanese Edition of Finnegans Wake
After James Joyce published Ulysses, he spent the next 15 years crafting his final novel: Finnegans Wake, a sprawling work that weaves dozens of world languages into an experimental, punny, and often contradictory web of prose. How, then, would one go about translating it? This presentation will examine the Rosenbach’s Japanese edition of Finnegans Wake as a case study in the art of translation and transliteration.
2:30 p.m.
Treasures from the Rosenbach’s Collection: Literature of Great Britain & Ireland. British & Irish Literature Across Centuries
Visit the inaugural Rosenbach Treasures gallery on its one-year anniversary to voyage through five centuries of literature from Great Britain and Ireland. This talk will explore the evolution of books and storytelling from a 15th century illuminated manuscript to first editions of Jane Austen and Oscar Wilde before finally arriving at the manuscript of James Joyce's Ulysses.
3:00 p.m.
The Influence of Antiquity on James Joyce’s Ulysses
From his choice of title to the novel’s epic format, thematic organization, characters’ roles, and details of prose style, Joyce relied on classical antiquity’s literary epics, Homer’s Odyssey and Virgil’s Aeneid. In this presentation, you will see and hear selections from these ancient works as we examine specific passages from Ulysses influenced by those works. No knowledge of ancient languages or literature is needed to engage fully in this object-based discussion.
3:30 p.m.
Gallery Talk: Treasures from the Rosenbach’s Collection: History of the Material Text. James Joyce, Pan-African Modernism, & the Harlem Renaissance
In celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Harlem Renaissance, visit the Rosenbach’s new exhibition to view iconic artifacts of that legendary literary and artistic movement, as well as a lesser-known Modernist French text that influenced the likes of Langston Hughes and Alain LeRoy Locke. In addition to James Joyce’s iconic Ulysses manuscript, the Rosenbach holds the manuscript of René Maran’s Batouala, a post-colonial critique of the French imperial project in Africa that helped shape the Harlem Renaissance. In this gallery talk, learn about Maran and key Harlem Renaissance authors in the Rosenbach collection, and how they relate to James Joyce’s own post-colonial critique put forward in Ulysses.
4:00 p.m.
The Women Behind James Joyce’s Ulysses
Bloomsday celebrates James Joyce’s masterpiece Ulysses. But how much do you know about the women who made its publication possible? In this presentation, you will hear how publishers and translators Sylvia Beach, Adrienne Monnier, Margaret Anderson and Jane Heap contributed to the international success of the novel; see early publications of Ulysses; and photographs by Bereneice Abbott.
4:30 p.m.
Treasures from the Rosenbach’s Collection: Literature of Great Britain & Ireland. British & Irish Literature Across Centuries
Visit the inaugural Rosenbach Treasures gallery on its one-year anniversary to voyage through five centuries of literature from Great Britain and Ireland. This talk will explore the evolution of books and storytelling from a 15th century illuminated manuscript to first editions of Jane Austen and Oscar Wilde before finally arriving at the manuscript of James Joyce's Ulysses.
5:00 p.m.
The Odyssey of Ulysses from Manuscript to Print
Like the wanderings of the characters in Ulysses and the ancient epic that inspired it, the path of Joyce’s novel from the pages of the Rosenbach’s famous manuscript to the printed book was anything but straightforward. In this presentation you’ll see how Joyce shaped and re-shaped his text as it moved from one handwritten page to another, through the typewriter—and sometimes back again, with a side trip to magazine publication—to layers of printer’s proofs, and ultimately the book we know today.
5:30 p.m.
Gallery Talk: Treasures from the Rosenbach’s Collection: History of the Material Text with Featured Artist John Y. Wind
The inaugural installation of the Rosenbach’s new permanent Treasures gallery includes an installation of artworks by acclaimed local artist John Y. Wind. Wind’s multimedia installations in the gallery explore issues of ethnicity, national identity, gender, sexuality, and history—all critical themes that James Joyce considers in Ulysses. Come to the Treasures gallery for a conversation with Wind about his work, and how he found inspiration in the Rosenbach brothers’ collections for his contemporary artworks.
Help us celebrate the opening of Treasures from the Rosenbach’s Collection: History of the Material Text with our featured artist!
6:00 p.m.
Always Meeting Ourselves: James Joyce's Remarkable Influence on the Modern Novel
The novels of James Joyce have exercised tremendous influence over the development of the literary arts during the past century. Join John C. Haas Director Kelsey Scouten Bates for a special viewing of works in the Rosenbach collection that reflect the long-term impact of James Joyce’s prose and style. In addition to Joyce, you’ll see rare and unique materials by T.S. Eliot, William Faulkner, Toni Morrison, and more.
6:00 p.m.
Gallery Talk: Treasures from the Rosenbach’s Collection: History of the Material Text with Featured Artist John Y. Wind
The inaugural installation of the Rosenbach’s new permanent Treasures gallery includes an installation of artworks by acclaimed local artist John Y. Wind. Wind’s multimedia installations in the gallery explore issues of ethnicity, national identity, gender, sexuality, and history—all critical themes that James Joyce considers in Ulysses. Come to the Treasures gallery for a conversation with Wind about his work, and how he found inspiration in the Rosenbach brothers’ collections for his contemporary artworks.
Help us celebrate the opening of Treasures from the Rosenbach’s Collection: History of the Material Text with our featured artist!
6:00 p.m.
Special musical performance at Academy of Vocal Arts, 1920 Spruce Street, just a block away from the Rosenbach.
No Additional Ticket Required
7:00 p.m.
Molly’s Soliloquy at Sunset performed by Kirsten Quinn in front of the Rosenbach historic house, 2010 Delancey Place.
No Additional Ticket Required
Philadelphia actor Kirsten Quinn reads Molly Bloom at Bloomsday, 2024. Photo by Mark Garvin
Event Sponsors
The Consulate General of Ireland’s Emigrant Support Programme
Lenni Steiner and Perry Lerner
South Jersey Celtic Society