Course: Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson

Date / Time

February 21, 2019
6:00 pm - 7:45 pm
March 21, 2019
6:00 pm - 7:45 pm
April 18, 2019
6:00 pm - 7:45 pm
May 16, 2019
6:00 pm - 7:45 pm

In this course we will read the essential poems from the Whitman and Dickinson canons in modern editions of their work, while also exploring online archives that reproduce their poems as they originally appeared. We will contextualize these poems in their cultural and biographical contexts, while also experiencing them as aesthetic objects in their own right.

Hands-On Tour: Founding Fathers

Date / Time

February 21, 2019
6:30 pm - 7:30 pm

From George Washington’s earliest known letter (he was just 17!) to a meticulously folded page containing a scientific observation made by Thomas Jefferson while he was walking outside on a misty day, this tour offers an intimate view of the Founding Fathers’ writings to family, friends, colleagues, and even themselves. A rare opportunity to know our nation’s icons as real people: fathers, spurned lovers, jealous politicians, intellectuals, and, of course, revolutionaries. Washington, Jefferson, Adams, and Franklin form the core of the tour.

Hands-On Tour: Shaping Shakespeare

Date / Time

February 22, 2019
3:00 pm - 4:00 pm

When is Shakespeare not Shakespeare? And what is a folio, anyway? After seeing some of Shakespeare’s earliest printings and books that inspired his plots, we’ll explore how his work has fared at the hands of actors, editors, and forgers.

Course: Melville: Beyond Moby-Dick

Date / Time

February 24, 2019
12:00 pm - 2:00 pm
March 24, 2019
12:00 pm - 2:00 pm
April 28, 2019
12:00 pm - 2:00 pm
May 19, 2019
12:00 pm - 2:00 pm

This four-week course won’t be anything close to a comprehensive survey of Melville’s writings. Yet by setting aside his behemoth, Moby-Dick, we will acquire depth into key texts that help us gain perspective on his career and, even more importantly, insight into his arguments about politics, power, self-deception, and modernity.

Course: The Brontë Sisters (Registration Closed)

Date / Time

February 24, 2019
2:00 pm - 4:00 pm

This course is devoted to the literary achievements of the Brontë sisters, whose first novels arrived on the scene in 1847 with the collective publication of Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, and Agnes Grey. Representing themselves as a trio of brothers — Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell — the Brontës polarized their critics, with many insisting that works as complex as theirs could only be produced by men, while others noted their daring and sometimes radical representation of gender and sexuality.

Yolanda Wisher’s Rent Party at the Rosenbach

Date / Time

February 27, 2019
6:00 pm - 7:30 pm

“Oak & Ivy”: Celebrating the legacy of poet Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906), known affectionately and notoriously for writing in both conventional English as well as African American vernacular. Oak and Ivy, his first collection of poems, was published in 1893 and is part of the Rosenbach’s collection.

Museum Adventures at The Rosenbach

Date / Time

February 28, 2019
10:00 am - 11:00 am

Calling all pre-schoolers! Come play with us on the last Thursday morning of every month. We’ll read a story together and then embark on a treasure hunt through the Rosenbach brothers’ glitzy Rittenhouse Square home to discover things that relate to the story. Afterward, families are welcome to join us in our activity room for hands-on art making activities, creative play, music and snacks.

Hands-On Tour: Picturing Cervantes

Date / Time

February 28, 2019
6:30 pm - 7:30 pm

“Picturing Cervantes” explores the ways Don Quixote has been imagined and illustrated through the centuries, featuring remarkable drawings and prints by notable artists such as Gustave Doré and Honoré Daumier. Explore depictions of the questing Don, his companion Sancho Panza, and his noble steed Rocinante from artworks created shortly after the heroic entry of the “Ingenious Gentleman” onto the field of literature, and through the centuries beyond.

Hands-On Tour: Mary Shelley

Date / Time

March 1, 2019
3:00 pm - 4:00 pm

The young widow who kept her husband’s heart in her desk, the author of the first post-apocalyptic novel (The Last Man) and the immortal Frankenstein, Mary Shelley was so much more than a goth pin-up! After the fires of her legendary romantic youth were drowned, Mary Shelley embarked on a career as a professional writer–publishing biographies, poems, travel narratives, short stories, and novels in multiple genres. Explore the life and works of this radical, proto-feminist, and quintessential Romantic (born on August 30) as we sift through early editions of her works, along with manuscripts and letters of her husband, poet Percy Shelley, and their disreputable friends.

Shakespeare Free Read-Aloud Group: Measure for Measure

Date / Time

March 2, 2019
1:00 pm - 4:00 pm

Reading Shakespeare’s plays aloud offers not only a communal way to enjoy these great works but also promotes a deeper understanding of Shakespeare’s poetry and wordplay. No acting experience is required to participate — just bring a copy of the play we’re reading…and your voice!