Friends, the above is the greatest list of personal interests, ever constructed. Bar none. It comes from the Who Was Who 1916-1928 listing for English journalist and dramatist George Sims (1847-1922). (The Who Was Who list is actually entitled “recreations,” which may help explain why I find it so charming.) Tucked away on the Rosenbach’s …
I find it touching that a wealthy and powerful business-magnate like Philadelphian John Wanamaker (1838-1922) would go to the trouble to print this little volume of important American historical documents for distribution to the general public: and that the general public would take them home and sign Wanamaker’s pledge to “carefully read” the whole thing:Isabella …
I’m not sure when Cracker Jack® prizes got all educational and everything, but check out the one I got, er, found on the sidewalk the other day: Ladies and Gentleman, I give you Alexander Hamilton, founder of the First Bank of the United States! Yeah, being one of the most important figues in American history …
Gilbert & Bacon, portrait of A.S.W Rosenbach. Philadelphia: [1898]. 2006.1989. Our founder, A.S.W. Rosenbach, graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1898. He went to earn his doctorate from Penn three years later (hence the nickname “Doctor R.”) His doctoral thesis explored “The Influence of Celestina in the Early English Drama.” (Celestina is a Spanish …
As the repository for the artwork and manuscripts of Caldecott Award Winner Maurice Sendak, we at the Rosenbach take an interest in all things Sendak. That includes this news item from The Daily News Journal of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, regarding Iona and Peter Opie’s I Saw Esau: The Schoolchild’s Pocket Book (Cambridge: Candlewick Press, 1992), illustrated …
Sure Juan de Zumárraga’s Doctrina breue is the oldest surviving complete book printed in the Americas (see “Bay Psalm Book…” below). But let’s not forget that printing goes back a lot further than that. The world’s oldest known printed book, a copy of the Diamond Sutra, bears the date 868 C.E. So the Chinese were …
Abraham Lincoln [detail]John C. Yorston and Co., 1896. 1954.1563. Congratulations to our friends across town at the National Constitution Center! Last Friday they announced the good news that they’ve acquired acquired a printed copy of the Emancipation Proclamation signed by Abraham Lincoln and William Seward. The Rosenbach isn’t fortunate enough to have a copy of …
Bible. The Whole Booke of Psalmes, Faithfully Translated into the English Metre.[Cambridge, Mass:] [Stephen Day], 1640. A640w. The oldest surviving book printed in what became the United States is, as is widely known, The Whole Booke of Psalmes, a.k.a the Bay Psalm Book. Eleven copies of it are known to exist — one of which …
Jerome Kern (1885-1945), inscription to A.S.W. Rosenbach in Nine Answers by G. Bernard Shaw… [New York:] Privately printed for Jerome Kern, 1923Ro3 923sh Tucked away in Doctor Rosenbach’s personal library is this little volume, an inscribed Christmas gift from Hall of Fame songwriter and legendary book collector Jerome Kern. And when you come across the …
[Noah Webster, 1758-1843] The Pirates: A Tale for the Amusement and Instruction of Youth… Philadelphia: Johnson and Warner, 1813. A 813p This little book caught my eye as I trolled through the Library shelves one recent morning. Actually, I could only see the spine, which is blank, but that’s really the only invitation one needs …