This week marked the end of the four-and-a-half year run of our “Today in the Civil War” blog and this weekend is also the final weekend of our Oscar Wilde in Philadelphia exhibit, so what better way to celebrate both of these occasions than with a poem by Walt Whitman about the death of Abram …
In celebration of Bike to Work Day, here are some wonderful images of bicycles from our collection. George Cruikshank, Hairbrain. London, 1818.The Rosenbach of the Free Library of Philaedelphia.1954.1880.0880 This image dates from around 1818, when early bicycles became popular in England. The sheet refers to the man as riding “a velocipede,” a word imported …
Here are the answers to last week’s mystery objects: Spoon warmer. 19th century. 2002.0326 The Rosenbach of the Free Library of Philadelphia Spoon warmer. 19th century. 2002.0326 The Rosenbach of the Free Library of Philadelphia Item number one is a spoon warmer. It would have been filled with hot water and used to keep serving …
Can you identify these objects from around Rosenbach collection? Post your thoughts and the answers will be revealed next week. Item #1: The Rosenbach of the Free Library of Philadelphia Here’s a side view of this piece of Victorian silver. The Rosenbach of the Free Library of Philadelphia And here’s a top view Item #2: …
Taking boats, sitting in carriages, and wandering on foot, a man makes his way from Charleston to New York, then winds around Lake Ontario and Southern Canada. His adventures recall the excitement and the trials of modern travel: at one point he gets sick, and reluctantly stays in his room while friends go out and …
This week’s post comes from our intern Callan Carrow, who wrote a few weeks ago about the Whitman massacre – – – – – Though you may be familiar with Heart of Darkness author Joseph Conrad, you probably haven’t heard of his wife, Jessie Conrad. An Englishwoman from a working-class background, she married Joseph, who …
With both Passover and Easter falling over the same weekend, here is a Rosenbach object for each. I wrote a post along the same lines back in 2012; you can check it out if you’re interested in seeing the earliest printed depiction of a matzoh or a renaissance drawing of the crucifixion. Service for the …
Today marks the 285th birthday of Thomas Tyrwhitt. Who is Thomas Tyrwhitt, you ask? Tyrwitt was an 18th-century scholar (born March 27, 1730) who, among many much more important contributions to the study of classical and English literature, came up with the theory that Shakespeare’s sonnets were dedicated to a man named W. Hughes. This …
Hello! I’m Callan, the Rosenbach’s newest Collections intern. I’m currently on a semester away from Whitman College in Walla Walla, a small town in the southeast corner of Washington State. I was therefore excited to investigate the Rosenbach’s collection of documents related to the early settlement of the Oregon Country, especially those pertaining to Washington …
Happy Friday the 13th. I’ve been hoping to write about The Oraculum or Futurity’s Mirror, by which may be foretold many future events, and much evil avoided for a while and today seemed like a good day for fortune telling and the supernatural. I ran across the few slips of paper that make up The …