The Spanish Empire was one of the western world’s first global colonial superpowers, and its great wealth was built on the extraction of natural resources by enslaved labor in Central and South America. The Rosenbach is home to a collection of manuscripts and books from the 1500s and 1600s that record the conquest of Mexico. (more…)
To celebrate Independence Day, we invite you to join members of The Rosenbach’s Collections Department as we take an intimate look at our Founding Fathers’ handwritten letters and notes to family, friends, colleagues—and even to themselves. Get to know our nation’s first political icons—George Washington, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson—as the complex, real people they were.
But not all history was made by men! Even before Independence from Great Britain, women in America were revolutionary. In the second half of the program, we’ll look at the lives and works of Anne Bradstreet and Phillis Wheatley, the first American women to publish, and consider their ideas about women’s place in society and enslavement. While the North American colonies sought Independence from Great Britain, women on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean considered the possibilities of liberty for their gender, led by philosopher and author Mary Wollstonecraft. Her friend and French revolutionary supporter Helen Maria Williams published poetry opposed to slavery, war, and colonialism. We’ll see their writings, too, and have time for questions from you.
Civil rights activist, journalist, novelist, educator, and short story writer Alice Dunbar-Nelson (1875-1935) will form the focus of The Rosenbach’s fall, 2020 online exhibition “I Am an American!”: The Authorship and Activism of Alice Dunbar-Nelson. Join the exhibition’s co-curators Monet Timmons and Jesse Erickson, as well as Rosenbach staff, for a behind-the-scenes sneak peek into the exhibition development process.
In Bed with Ishmael is presented as part of The Rosenbach’s celebration of Pride Month 2020, and alongside American Voyager: Herman Melville at 200.
The Rosenbach’s rare book collections include volumes written by Native American authors who sought to advocate for Indigenous peoples’ rights in the nineteenth-century United States. In this interactive, digital program, you will learn about three of those authors—William Apess, R.B. Lewis, and Simon Pokagon—and a fourth author, Jane Johnston Schoolcraft, represented in the Rosenbach collection (more…)
This blog post was written by Andrew White What would you say to a look at some tender and romantic love letters from Marlene Dietrich, the 20th century German American actress and singer whose life and art continue to inspire? It’s the 7th week of social distancing—counting from the Ides of March when the Rosenbach …
Our Behind the Bookcase tours are going digital! Get a behind-the-scenes peek at some of the rare and important objects in our collection and get the chance to talk directly with our experts during these virtual sessions.
The century-long public image of Emily Dickinson was confined to that for a vulnerable recluse. In truth, Dickinson was far more audacious and lively, with adventurous ideas that continue to resonate today.
With a warm heart for human nature and a cold eye for the human condition, Herman Melville was ahead of his time. Join us for an exploration of Melville’s significance to the 21st century, with a focus on themes like social justice, globalization, and more.
In recent years, Melville has attracted new attention for his complex portrayals of interpersonal relationships. In this tour, we’ll dive into early editions of his work to explore their resonances with today’s politics of gender and sexuality.