The Rosenbach's verdant urban hideaway (our backyard garden) connects us to the grottoes of antiquity that influenced French and Italian gardens, fine art, and design after the discoveries of the ruins of Nero's Domus Aurea in the 1480s and Pompeii in 1599. These artifact-filled European gardens provided refuge from summer heat and the possibility of transformative encounters, both human and divine. In this program, we will discover the ancient myths found in the Rosenbach's garden sculptures and connect them to the literature inside our building that present and reinterpret ancient themes, including works by Homer, Sappho, Catullus, Shakespeare, Wheatley, and Joyce. 

As we reflect on America’s 250^th anniversary, this course will look back to Vonnegut’s early 1970s attempts to restore “humane harmony” in his brain as he confronted foundational American myths, a damaged planet, and a culture that seemed like a “sidewalk strewn with junk.” Focusing on Breakfast of Champions (1973) and selected short works, this three-session course will explore the how Vonnegut used his newfound celebrity in the wake of Slaughterhouse-Five (1969) to respond to the Vietnam War, the space race and other Cold War technologies, and the broader social, political, environmental, and economic breakdowns he witnessed. 

In celebration of Mexican Independence Day, join us for a yoga experience inspired by the visionary work of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz—the 17th-century Mexican poet, philosopher, and nun who defied convention to pursue a life of intellectual and spiritual inquiry. 

Join the Rosenbach Museum & Library in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Abbotsford: The Home of Sir Walter Scott, in the Scottish Lowlands for a transatlantic book club experience! As the United States commemorates 250 years of independence and we mark 210 years since the publication of Sir Walter Scott’s historical novel The Antiquary, the book club will consider how national identity has been formed and reforged via history, literature, and culture in both Scotland the U.S.

This hands-on class invites participants to explore how individuals folded letters to function as their own creative, and occasionally top-secret, enclosures before (and after) the invention of the envelope in 1830. Use paper, wax, scissors, and seals to reconstruct several historical letterlocking formats found in the Rosenbach’s collection while discussing the relative security, innovation, and elegance of each model. 

This talk explores the notable events, actions, and controversies of Girard’s life and afterlife—his volunteerism during the Yellow Fever epidemic of 1793, his financial investment in the U.S. government during the War of 1812, and his decision to bequeath his fortune to the city of Philadelphia—through the lens of his intellectual and domestic lives.

Celebrate the start of fall with a visit to the Rosenbach! Take a free, self-guided tour, visit our permanent exhibition, Treasures from the Rosenbach’s Collection, to view rare objects from our Dracula, vampire, and Gothic holdings, and enjoy a spooky, Halloween-inspired immersive audio-scape.

When the RMS Titanic sank in the icy waters of the North Atlantic on April 15, 1912, it took with it Dr. ASW Rosenbach’s friend and collecting protégé, Harry Elkins Widener. Harry’s mother, socialite Eleanor Elkins Widener, turned to Dr. Rosenbach for help creating the Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library at Harry’s alma mater, Harvard. Untangle the stories of the Wideners, the Rosenbachs, and the Titanic by viewing and handling rare documents relating to history’s most famous tragedy at sea.   

We welcome members of the Delancey Society to celebrate the start of the fall season at the Rosenbach with cocktails, light fare, and a special after-hours opportunity to visit the Treasures galleries, Book Arts Center, and Revolutionary-era documents by the signers of the Declaration of Independence, on display in the Library.  

Dive into that material history with this hands-on class, which will cover the foundations of letterpress, from setting metal type to pulling prints. Participants will craft a collaborative and seasonally appropriate chapbook of Edgar Allan Poe’s poetry on an iron handpress.

Join the Rosenbach, Chef Adam Diltz of Elwood Restaurant, and talented musicians from the Philadelphia Orchestra for a “Philadelphia tea party” in honor of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States. 

Read Ulysses with one of the leading James Joyce scholars in an intimate in-person setting at the Rosenbach. One of the challenges of reading Ulysses on one’s own is that we tend to see (or object to not seeing!) what we expect to find. Slow reading in a communal setting allows readers to access the unexpected, the incomprehensible, the bizarre complexity of daily life.  

On the Road is both a modern epic of male escape from domesticity, peddling a fantasy of mobility as freedom (often at the expense of those left behind), and a disarmingly authentic search for meaning and spirituality in a fallen postwar world of conformity, capitalism, and prescribed sexual norms. In this course, we will try to come to terms with the novel’s complex legacy as we read it both in the context of its time and through the lens of Kerouac’s own background as a first-generation American born of French-Canadian parents.

Titus Andronicus is Shakespeare’s earliest tragedy and possibly his first published play. It is certainly his bloodiest and is perhaps the most disturbing of all his texts, seeming to some playgoers to be more like an early modern version of a Quentin Tarantino movie than what they normally associate with Shakespeare.

Chaucer wrote his poetry to be read aloud, and the Wife of Bath is the loudest, and most famous, of his Canterbury pilgrims. We will also consider those tales that immediately follow the Wife in the Canterbury Tales sequence: those of the Friar and Summoner. But the Wife is the main event.

In this course, we’ll consider how Dracula highlights the fears and anxieties of the culture that produced it and discover how this vampire story, and its themes of otherness, race and ethnicity, and sexuality and gender, is still relevant for contemporary readers. 

Step into the shadows for an unforgettable evening as the Rosenbach presents a special screening of the silent‑film classic Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror.

In this special excursion, join the Rosenbach and Nemours Estate for an in-depth look at books and other objects connected to the du Pont dynasty of Delaware. You will learn about the history of this fascinating estate, the legacy of book collecting among the du Ponts, and the importance of country house library collections to our understanding of the history of reading.

Celebrate National Coming Out Day 2026 at the Rosenbach, as we find inspiration for sensual Queer self-expression in the papers of lesbian playwright Mercedes de Acosta (1892-1968). Participants will leave the Rosenbach with a copy of an Acosta love poem, their own poetry, as well as a lavender pen to continue exploring and expressing Queer identity following the course.  

In this seminar, we’ll go beyond the best and worst of times and examine the wisdom/foolishness, belief/incredulity, Light/Darkness, hope/despair, etc. in a story that attempts to encapsulate a cataclysmic historical event, told by an author at the top of his abilities who had also just turned his life upside down with a series of personal decisions: abandonment of his wife; a young secret mistress; shuttering of his long-running magazine; start of a new magazine; and his first public reading tour. In effect, Dickens himself was leading a kind of small-r revolution against himself at the time he was writing about Revolution. 

Few literary friendships are as consequential as the one between Samuel Johnson and James Boswell. In this five-session course, Jack Lynch and Celia Barnes will guide participants through close readings and lively discussion of fascinating intertwined texts.  

This tour will introduce you to the life, literary work, and romantic liaisons of Mercedes de Acosta before exploring the fascinating story of how Acosta’s papers came to the Rosenbach under the guidance of curator and director William H. McCarthy, Jr. The tour will conclude with a discussion of Acosta’s life lessons for LGBTQ+ Americans in the 21st century.  

Trek through the Joycean high country with Rosenbach Joyce Sherpa Mike Barsanti as he leads an intrepid group of readers through a truly unique work of literature. Designed for first-time readers, the course will help students find a method for reading (and re-reading!) the “Wake,” while benefiting from the shared experiences of the group. There are nine course sessions from October to June.

Edward Leahy’s remarkable collection spans eight centuries of literary history. Please join Mr. Leahy and members of the Rosenbach’s Board and Delancey Society for an intimate evening as he shares highlights from his collection, along with the stories, discoveries, and insights of a most serious and knowledgeable rare book collector over the course of nearly 60 years.

This season of the Republic of Letters Book Club explores the causes, consequences, and cultural legacy of the Whiskey Rebellion, one of the first major tests of federal authority in the early United States. Sessions meet variously at Carpenters’ Hall and the Rosenbach.

This course explores Gabriel García Márquez’s seventh novel—his self-proclaimed masterpiece and his only work devoted entirely to love. Moving away from magical realism and solitude, this novel is a grounded meditation on the many dimensions of love: romantic, platonic, and mature traced across decades of longing, separation, and reunion.

Don your black capes and fly to the Rosenbach for a vampiric afternoon the week before Halloween!

Each session will include some relevant background, but our discussions will be guided by the interests of participants. Likely topics will include desire, the crushing weight of history, what we want from pleasure, the meaning of devotion in the absence of faith, art, loss, the uses of fantasy, and what it’s like to be a human being with a fragile, needy body.

In honor of Oscar Wilde’s birthday, we gather to honor his dazzling legacy by uncovering how he navigated a complex world where his wit and genius were both celebrated and fiercely condemned.

Let’s bring back the Medieval trend of wearing books as fashion accessories! In this hands-on bookbinding class, you will craft a belt book inspired by the Rosenbach’s 1364 illuminated almanac, which is also known as a “bat book.”

We will launch our Sense and Sensibility-fest by reading some of Austen’s early sketches, whose complexity, penetration, and energy will provide us with a suggestive backdrop for the novel.

This season of the Republic of Letters Book Club explores the causes, consequences, and cultural legacy of the Whiskey Rebellion, one of the first major tests of federal authority in the early United States. Sessions meet variously at Carpenters’ Hall and the Rosenbach.

In Christopher Marlowe’s writing, all certainties are questioned, faith can be treated scurrilously, and the Devil is always just a contract away. Join Ed Simon as he explores the writing and the world of Renaissance England’s most scandalous of writers.

In this two-hour, immersive, hands-on workshop, distinguished local Irish American calligrapher and manuscript illuminator Susan Kelly vonMedicus will introduce you to Irish manuscript heritage and teach the Uncial script found in the Book of Kells and other early Irish manuscripts. By the end of the two-hour course, you will possess a foundational ability in using the Uncial alphabet, and you will have gained experience assembling words and sentences using the script.

Join Andalusia, the Rosenbach, and the Alliance Française de Philadelphie for a special opportunity to spend an afternoon in the library of one of early America’s most important intellects, engaging with his collection of 18th-century books and other library treasures.

Join Andalusia, the Rosenbach, and the Alliance Française de Philadelphie for a special opportunity to spend an afternoon in the library of one of early America’s most important intellects, engaging with his collection of 18th-century books and other library treasures.

Celebrate the winter season with a visit to the Rosenbach! Take a free, self-guided tour; visit our permanent exhibition, Treasures from the Rosenbach’s Collection, to view books from our Charles Dickens holdings; and enjoy a comfortable candle-lit reading nook. 

Looking for a one-of-a-kind way to celebrate the season? Join us at the Rosenbach Book Arts Center to print greeting cards designed with our unique collection of beautiful metal type and ornaments. 

This season of the Republic of Letters Book Club explores the causes, consequences, and cultural legacy of the Whiskey Rebellion, one of the first major tests of federal authority in the early United States. Sessions meet variously at Carpenters’ Hall and the Rosenbach.