Tomorrow marks the hundredth anniversary of the shot that started the Great War. Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, was assassinated in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914. This led Austria-Hungary to declare war on Serbia, and the current European system of alliances soon meant that the continent was embroiled in World War …
Countdown Clock Bloomsday is almost here! Although Bloomsday itself is Monday, June 16, at the Rosenbach and the Free Library we’re celebrating from now through next Wednesday, with a great slate of programs. One of them is an author talk on 6/18 at the Free Library by Kevin Birmingham, author of The Most Dangerous Book: …
In honor of the 70th anniversary of D-Day, I’m posting today about the Rosenbach’s our most significant World War II document: the Atlantic Charter. The Atlantic Charter was not a formal treaty but a statement by Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill to “make known certain common principles in the national policies of their respective countries …
News outlets are abuzz today with the news of a tie for the winner of the Scripps National Spelling Bee–Sriram Hathwar and Ansun Sujoe will share the spelling crown, the first time since 1962 that there have been co-champions. All the news about spelling put me in mind of the various spelling books here in …
Happy Memorial Day weekend to all our Rosen-readers. Since Memorial Day began as a holiday to remember and decorate the graves of the Civil War dead, it seems appropriate to remind everyone of our ongoing Today in the Civil War blog, which commemorates the 150th anniversary of the Civil War with objects from our collection. …
This week’s post is not about famous literary sequels (although we have plenty of those here–Through the Looking Glass, anyone?), but instead provides sequels to a couple of blog posts from the archive. Back in 2011 I wrote about our acquisition of an early American copy of John Polidori’s genre-creating tale, The Vampyre. As a …
It’s time for another check on the Networking before the Net exhibit. About six weeks ago I posted about the exhibit and offered some selections that visitors had contributed to an exhibit commonplace book. As I explained previously, commonplace books, or personal miscellanies, were blank books used to collect quotations, poetry, bits of wisdom, etc. …
With April showers behind us, we welcome the blossoms of May! On Sunday May 4 at 1:30, Bartram’s Garden will host a second performance of Native Plants underneath the historic ginkgo tree. The first performance was this past Thursday at the Rosenbach. Two students from Richard Stockton College recited poetry as well as read aloud …
We are now past the third phase of our work with consultant Linda Norris in re-evaluating our program offerings for family audiences. The first phase was asking our stake holders to share their ideas. This past winter we met with staff members and docents and had them define family audiences. Norris wrote a terrific summery …
Judging by this sidewalk sign the good folks at Capogiro gelateria (just up 20th Street from the museum) must have paid a visit recently to our new exhibition Sendak in the ’60s. Sendak’s original drawing of Max and Moishe the Wild Thing is part of the exhibition that explores his most productive and experimental decade. …