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 …
Title page of Coryat’s Crudities by Thomas Coryat. London: 1611. The Rosenbach of the Free Library of Philadelphia, EL1 .C833c I’ve been kicking around the idea of developing a Hands-On Tour relating to humor (if you haven’t been on one of our Hands-On Tours yet or don’t know what they are you can learn more …
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 …
For the past five years we have been remembering the 100th anniversary of the Civil War (check out Today in The Civil War to enjoy our holdings), but today marks the 195th anniversary of an important milestone in the long-term lead up to the war: the Missouri Compromise. On March 6, 1820, James Monroe signed …
In honor of the year of the sheep (a.k.a. the year of the goat), which began last week (February 19), we bring you G. Martin’s Natural History Cards from the 1820s. Natural History Cards. Beasts. London, G. Martin, [ca. 1825]. EL3 .A1n 825a. Rosenbach of the Free Library of Philadelphia. Natural History Cards. Beasts. London, …
William Ward after James Ward. Winter. London, 1795. 2005.108. The Rosenbach of the Free Library of Philadelphia It’s warmed up to a balmy 11 degrees here in Philadelphia, but 14 mph winds are giving us a wind chill of -4, so I can sympathize with the girl in this print. She definitely seems underdressed, even …
The first Italian edition of Gerrit de Veer’s diary of his arctic voyages (Tre Navigationi Fatte Dagli Olandesi e Zelandesi… Venice: Printed by Giovanni Battista Ciotti, 1599. A 599t). With a -2 degree windchill today seems like an appropriate day to consider a book about the arctic. You may have heard of the Northwest Passage, …