I’ve been super-busy this week getting ready for our upcoming exhibition, Titanic: The Rise of Rosenbach, so instead of my usual wordy post, I’m going to tempt you with a mystery object.
This is a detail from an item in our book collection. What is it?
Hint, it has something to do with someone famous (and dead) who had a birthday this past week.
Go ahead and post your guesses. Answer to be revealed next week!
Kathy Haas is the Assistant Curator at the Rosenbach Museum & Library and the primary poster at the Rosen-blog.
At first glance, I believed it to be an example of a cipher, perhaps one that Edgar Allan Poe (b. Jan. 19) used as a model for his own code in his story "The Gold-Bug," but now I am fairly sure it is an anatomy / astronomy chart printed by Philadelphia's own Benjamin Franklin (b. Jan. 17) in his Poor Richard's Almanac.
Thighs and legs!