Governess Glam: Marianne Moore’s copy of Jane Eyre

Marianne Moore’s copy of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre (Chicago: M. A. Donohue & Co., ca. 1906); Rosenbach Museum & Library, Philadelphia (MML 0166). Studio portrait of Marianne Moore by Alice Boughton (1866–1943), 1920; Rosenbach Museum & Library, Philadelphia (2006.5017; Moore XII:02:35a). When the American poet Marianne Moore (1887–1972) picked up this copy of Charlotte Brontë’s …

An interview with Joyce scholar Vicki Mahaffey on her new book The Joyce of Everyday Life 

Vicki Mahaffey has been teaching and writing about James Joyce for decades, at the Rosenbach but also at University of Pennsylvania and University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. And yet she has more to say on the topic. Her new book, The Joyce of Everyday Life (Bucknell University Press), feels like a book Joyce himself might have …

The Portrait of a Lady: Reparative Cataloging at the Rosenbach

On the stairwell of the Rosenbach Museum & Library’s historic house hangs a portrait of a woman and her child (1954.1882). The woman’s elbow rests on a plush sofa while the child combs her mother’s dark hair. The identity of the woman has long been a source of confusion, and our limited documentation on the …

Thrills! Chills! An Overnight Reading of Dracula

The Rosenbach is the home of first editions of Bram Stoker’s novel, as well as his notes for Dracula, over 100 pages of outlines, early plot ideas, and research notes, compiled by the author over the seven years he developed and wrote the book.   This year is the 125th anniversary of the publication of Dracula and the Rosenbach is celebrating with a spine-tingling, all-night …

Edward Burne-Jones (Sort Of) Illustrates The Kelmscott Chaucer

This blog post was written by Andrew White  Leaving aside his other manifold accomplishments, let’s look at William Morris at the moment that the Renaissance man and Victorian gadfly became a printer. This was 1891, when Morris was fifty-five. Between 1891 and 1896, Morris’s press, the Kelmscott—named for his home in Oxfordshire—printed sixty-six books. The …

The Inauguration and the Peaceful Transfer of Power

A nation divided. A hotly contested election. A president feverishly appointing judges favorable to his viewpoint in the twilight of his term of office. Rumors that the opposition will lead the nation into radicalism and violence.  2020?  Perhaps.  But I’m here to tell you about the presidential inauguration in the aftermath of the election of …

The House Tour, the Orientation Gallery, and the beginnings of Abraham and Philip Rosenbach

I am greatly looking forward to the time when visitors can return to The Rosenbach and enjoy the remarkable tours our guides provide of the historic house that was the home of Phillip and Abraham Rosenbach in the last two years of their lives.  Giving a tour is one of my greatest pleasures. Starting in …

The Rosenbach’s Gallery Gateway Online Exhibitions Make New Content Accessible Online

The Rosenbach has unveiled a new Gallery Gateway online exhibitions portal that will make content from exhibitions mounted onsite at the museum available to all via the Internet.  The first Gallery Gateway to debut online presents The Rosenbach’s current exhibition, American Voyager: Herman Melville at 200.  A second Gallery Gateway, which has recently made its …

A Look At The Ulysses Manuscript

Hi there, Joyceans! This is Judy Guston, Curator and Director of Collections at the Rosenbach starting a new addition to Ulysses Every Day! This Bloomsday will be my 22nd at the Rosenbach! This year, from now through our virtual Bloomsday, my Collections teammates and I will be sharing with you some illustrated stories about the …