Bold, cautious, resolved, ambivalent, and sometimes all of the above, gay men of the 19th century strove for authentic identities in art, literature, and love. In this Hands-on Tour, we’ll look at the rise and fall of Oscar Wilde, follow John Addington Symonds path from self-acceptance to advocacy, fraternize with Walt Whitman and Herman Melville, and see the first use of the word homosexual in an English publication.
Join us for a discussion of Shakespeare’s comic masterpiece Twelfth Night. The following week, we’ll meet-up at Clark Park in West Philadelphia to see its free production of the play. We will also come together the first Saturday of every month at the Rosenbach to read aloud one of Shakespeare’s plays.
Reading Shakespeare plays aloud not only offers a communal way to enjoy these great works but promotes a deeper understanding of Shakespeare’s poetry and wordplay. No acting experience is required to participate—just bring your voice!
Reading Shakespeare plays aloud not only offers a communal way to enjoy these great works but promotes a deeper understanding of Shakespeare’s poetry and wordplay. No acting experience is required to participate—just bring your voice!
The Bibliococktails series celebrates great literature and great libations. Held almost every second Friday, programs include light refreshments, themed cocktails provided by Quaker City Mercantile, and a rotation of activities such as readings, music, and games. 21 and up.
Get up close and personal with Bram Stoker’s handwritten notes (character and chapter outlines, chronologies, and more!) for Dracula as Rosenbach staff explore what it takes to create an enduring monster.
Join us for this rare peek into some of the most personal and emotional writing in our collections. From the aching yearnings of poet John Keats to the dying wishes of a Civil War solider, the Rosenbach is home to a variety of love letters. Spend an hour getting up-close and personal with a variety of treasures, including correspondence from Marlene Dietrich to Mercedes De Acosta and handwritten pages from James Joyce’s Ulysses.
Mathematician and cleric Charles Lutwidge Dodgson published children’s books under the pen name Lewis Carroll. This tour will explore both the man and the author, drawing on letters from Dodgson to his publishers, original drawings by John Tenniel (the illustrator of the Alice books) photographs of children taken by Carroll, and, of course, copies of his books.
This blog post was written by Andrew White With a beautiful Vale Press book (Wilde’s House of Pomegranates) on display in the Rosenbach’s current Of Two Minds exhibit, William Morris has been on my mind; Morris’s renowned Kelmscott Press was a significant influence on Charles Ricketts and Charles Shannon when they created Vale Press. This week …
The game is afoot to ferret out the realm of detective and spy literature at the Rosenbach. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to explore early mystery stories, examine an original cypher belonging to a female Civil War spy, and exercise your sleuthing skills to detect a forgery.