Valentine’s Day is only about a week away, and if you are stuck for inspiration, the Rosenbach has your solution! We are running our popular “Love Letters” hands-on tour on Friday 2/13 and Saturday 2/14 so you can get up close and personal with some fabulous sentiments. Or for some less exalted (but quite amusing) …
A few months ago I ran across a historic magic trick in our collection: the Mystic Oracle, ca. 1825. Mystic Oracle. EL3 .A1my The Rosenbach of the Free Library of Philadelphia As the package states, the trick consists of a set of cards which allow you to guess a person’s age, or any other number …
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This week we are lucky to have a guest post from Rebecca N. Mitchell, an Oscar Wilde scholar who visited the Rosenbach recently to do research in the records of the Rosenbach Company. As libraries begin to digitize print catalogues and finding aids, it is no wonder that archival materials long thought to be missing …
In honor of the 96th anniversary of Prohibition, which was ratified on January 16, 1919, I thought I’d highlight George Cruikshank’s two famous series of temperance prints: The Bottle (1847) and the Drunkard’s Children (1848). British illustrator Cruikshank started out at the turn of the 19th century doing satirical prints, then moved into book illustration …
If you have walked into the Marianne Moore room, you may have noticed an inlaid wooden box lurking behind a lamp and a samovar on the tall chest of drawers right in front of you. Ch. Knusli,music box. Zurich, 1873-1894. 2006.2966. The Rosenbach of the Free Library of Philadelphia It turns out that this item …
Happy New Year From the Rosen-Blog! Daniel Maclise, illustration for Charles Dickens, The Chimes: A Goblin Story of Some Bells that Rang an Old Year Out and a New Year In. London, 1846. 1954.820a. The Rosenbach of the Free Library of Philadelphia
There are only two weeks left to see Bescribbled, Nibbled, and Dog-Eared:Early American Children’s Books before its last day on 12/31! Earlier this year I posted about visitor responses to our exhibit question “What is the worst thing you did to a book as a child;” since then we’ve filled and erased our response board …
With the holiday season upon us, many of us are busy finding, buying, or making gifts for our friends and family. The Rosenbach’s collections are full of objects with gift giving in their history and this week I’m offering up an idiosyncratic selection of some of my favorite gifted items. (Just for clarity, these items …
The Rosenbach is located on the 2000 block of Delancey Place because that was the home of our founders, Philip and A.S.W. Rosenbach. But there are other locations around Philadelphia that were important to them as well, and probably none more so than 1320 Walnut Street. The brothers’ business, the Rosenbach Company, operated out of …
George Cruikshank, “The Norfolk Turkey Coach.” from Peter Parley’s Tales About Christmas, 1838. The Rosenbach of the Free Library of Philadelphia. 1954.1880.3189. This Cruikshank illustration comes from an 1838 book of Christmas stories, but tale’s description of the bustle and burden of holiday travel (and, of course, the centrality of turkeys to holiday feasting) could …