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.
Join us for a conversation with Louis Bayard, the prizewinning author of Mr. Timothy and The Pale Blue Eye. His newest novel is Courting Mr. Lincoln, the page-turning and surprising story of a young Abraham Lincoln and the two people who loved him best: a young, marriageable Mary Todd and Lincoln’s best friend, Joshua Speed.
Do you prefer to judge a book by its cover, or does the inside matter more? In this tour of book arts, we’ll take a look at various rare books in The Rosenbach collection, their aesthetics, their functions, how the processes in creating books inform how we use them today, and vice versa.
This Hands-On Tour allows you to view and even handle rare documents relating to history’s most famous tragedy at sea.
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.
Working in conjunction with the Free Library of Philadelphia’s archives, Craft Works music, in partnership with the Rosenbach Museum, presents a program of choral works drawn from the Drinker Collection set to and inspired by the poetry of American Transcendentalist Walt Whitman. This program, celebrating the bicentennial of the poet’s birth, explores the legacy of Whitman and his enduring presence in art and music. Come enjoy the offerings of the guest speaker and the singers of Craft Works.
Shakespeare’s youthful narrative poems made his reputation as a writer; his sonnets continue to bewitch and bewilder readers, and the poems in his plays cast spells, calm seas, and unite lovers.
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!
This course will consider four plays that foreground issues of gender, sexuality, race, religion, and empire: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Measure for Measure, Othello, and The Tempest. We will discuss these plays in terms of their historical context, performance history, reception, popular adaptations, and continued resonances with debates about identity, difference, power, and intimacy. In addition, we will see the Lantern Theater Company’s production of Measure for Measure on April 14.
Heralded as one of the greatest novels of the 20th century, Ulysses is also considered one of the most daunting. The Rosenbach offers a welcoming discussion-based environment and unparalleled access to primary resource materials from our James Joyce collection to deepen readers’ understanding of the text and the author himself. First-time Ulysses readers and returning fans alike are welcome in either group.