“When I die Dublin will be written in my heart,” James Joyce proclaimed of his homeland. Ireland has inspired storytellers for centuries, and the Rosenbach is home to an incredible collection of this work. In this program we’ll explore a wide array of holdings, including Bram Stoker’s handwritten notes for his gothic classic Dracula, correspondence from the iconic and incomparable Oscar Wilde, and one of our most famous holdings, Joyce’s manuscript of his Modernist masterpiece Ulysses. The influence of these authors continues far beyond its time and far beyond Ireland’s rugged shores.  

This American history book club is a partnership of Carpenters’ Hall and the Rosenbach Museum & Library. Sessions meet variously at Carpenters’ Hall and the Rosenbach; check individual program descriptions for details. At least one book club session in the season will include a presentation of rare collection materials related to the themes and topics under discussion during the meetings. 

Do you love discovering fascinating stories from history? Have you ever wanted to get up close and personal with museum and library collection objects, including rare books, manuscripts, paintings, and decorative arts? If so, then let the Rosenbach become your laboratory for study.   

This course will explore this theme in three plays: the perfectly formed comedy As You Like It, the searing tragedy King Lear, and the graceful romance The Winter’s Tale. Along the way, we will discover that the virtues of the green world speak especially powerfully to us today in a time of division and disruption in both the social and the natural environments.  

This Behind the Bookcase tour will explore the intersection of genres in the first half of the 20th century, and how the discipline of music led the arts into Modernism. We will be looking at the incendiary works of Igor Stravinsky, the collaborative musicology of Ezra Pound and George Antheil, and John Cage’s structured silence. We will also discuss the impact of Modernist literary figures on the music scene by looking at works by James Joyce and Dylan Thomas in the Rosenbach’s collection.  

The public’s imagination about 19th-century poet Emily Dickinson has been wrong for over a century. However, Dickinson was far more audacious and lively than previously believed, a woman whose adventurous art and challenging ideas continue to resonate today. We‘ll study letters in her own handwriting, examine first editions of her works, and learn how her first editors reshaped her poetry to fit their own conceptions. We’ll also explore the myth of the Belle and learn more about the Modern Emily. 

• January 13, 2026 | 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm ET

• February 10, 2026 | 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm ET

• March 10, 2026 | 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm ET

• April 7, 2026 | 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm ET

• May 12, 2026 | 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm ET

Step into the shadows of history with “Mad” Women. Over the course of five months, we will uncover richly imagined stories based on real figures or inspired by historical events—women imprisoned, executed, or exiled under the guise of madness or moral corruption. These aren't just tales of guilt or innocence. They are stories about women whose truths were too complex for the world to bear. Expect rich discussion, challenging themes, and a space to question everything you've been taught about madness and morality. 

Beginning with Edgar Allan Poe’s influence on Horacio Quiroga—who adapted Poe’s gothic intensity and psychological suspense to the jungles and borderlands of the River Plate and Misiones—this course traces the evolution of the contemporary Latin American short story in English translation. We’ll read pivotal writers—Borges, Rulfo, Fuentes, García Márquez—and spotlight the vital contributions of women writers, including Rosario Ferré and Mariana Enríquez. 

The apparent simplicity of Emily Dickinson’s poetry is deceptive—beneath her brief, direct language lies profound depths of emotion and insight. In this three-part yoga series, we’ll explore her life and work through movement, breath, and reflection.

Session 3: Wonder & Interconnection 

The program will begin at the Rosenbach for a tour of the exhibition Treasures from the Rosenbach’s Collection: History of the Material Text before stepping outside for a short walk to the John Frederick Lewis / John Wind home on Delancey Place. Guests will be welcomed with light refreshments and an opportunity to step back in time. 

In this five-session course, we will uncover some of the medieval influences upon Eliot’s most famous work, including selections from The Wasteland, Four Quartets, and Murder in the Cathedral. Along the way, we’ll investigate how and where he draws upon the Arthurian Grail cycle, Christian mysticism, and The Canterbury Tales.

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 [MS 1004/29], which is also known as a “bat book.” 

Jewish activism before and during the American Revolution helped set the stage for the new United States’ Constitution. Paul Finkelman will discuss this important history of Jewish participation in the American Revolution. 

Join us in the Rosenbach’s historic library as we begin this series with Phillis Wheatley’s 18th-century publication, Poems on Various Subjects... and discover her use of Latin lyric and comic poetry to construct her literary persona.

We’ll examine how William Davenant’s departures from (and additions to) Shakespeare’s original text transformed the tragedy for new audiences—and what these changes reveal about the play’s afterlife. 

Our course will take place across six sessions, with one week between each meeting.

This five-week course offers an in-depth exploration of Anne Brontë’s life and works. The youngest of the Brontës, Anne is sometimes overshadowed by her elder sisters, whose works have achieved greater prominence in literature and culture. Yet Anne’s writing is no less powerful or profound, offering a unique voice unafraid to confront and represent the darker, more uncomfortable aspects of 19th-century culture. Through close reading, discussion, and consideration of the historical context of her two published novels, Agnes Grey (1847) and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848), this course will explore what Anne had to say about morality, gender, class, religion and the struggle for independence. We will give particular attention to how and why Anne wanted to interrogate and challenge Victorian social conventions with clarity and courage.  

Explore the collection’s most evocative natural history treasures, where centuries of scientific curiosity come alive. Grounded in careful observations of the living world, these and other early works of zoology, botany, and geology offer an intimate glimpse into the evolving art of describing nature. 

This program invites you to dive deep into the imagination, history, and cultural legacy surrounding Alice and her creator, Lewis Carroll. Drawing from original artifacts, rare editions, and materials from the Rosenbach collection, we will examine how real-life Alice was transformed into a literary icon. 

Make your own portrait miniature in this in-person workshop. Bring a small photo or print of a favorite image (up to about 4”x5”), and John Wind will provide all the other supplies needed to embellish and frame the image in a meaningful and personal way.  

This four-session class will cover the foundations of letterpress, from setting metal type to pulling prints. Learn about the history of printing through exploring an extraordinary publication: Phillis Wheatley’s Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral.  

• January 13, 2026 | 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm ET

• February 10, 2026 | 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm ET

• March 10, 2026 | 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm ET

• April 7, 2026 | 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm ET

• May 12, 2026 | 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm ET

Step into the shadows of history with “Mad” Women. Over the course of five months, we will uncover richly imagined stories based on real figures or inspired by historical events—women imprisoned, executed, or exiled under the guise of madness or moral corruption. These aren't just tales of guilt or innocence. They are stories about women whose truths were too complex for the world to bear. Expect rich discussion, challenging themes, and a space to question everything you've been taught about madness and morality. 

Few writers of the 19th century fused literature, religion, and politics quite as poetically as Victor Hugo. Join us to look at the Rosenbach's Hugo collection and related literary forces including Shakespeare, Dickens, and Flaubert. 

This tour examines early printed books in English, Latin, Dutch, Hebrew, and Native American languages to tell a story of cultural misunderstanding and religious longing in an age of exploration and expansion. 

Join the Rosenbach Museum & Library for a consideration of the development of the office of the presidency over the last 250 years.

In this program we’ll explore a wide array of holdings, including Bram Stoker’s handwritten notes for his gothic classic Dracula, correspondence from the iconic and incomparable Oscar Wilde, and one of our most famous holdings, Joyce’s manuscript of his Modernist masterpiece Ulysses.

Join the Rosenbach Board and Delancey Society for our festive annual Spring Soirée.

As we mark the 250th anniversary of Stephen Girard’s arrival in Philadelphia in 1776, come to historic Founder’s Hall to learn about this notable Philadelphian’s remarkable life story, explore the collection of books, manuscripts, artworks, and artifacts he left behind, and consider his complex, contested legacy for his adopted city and nation.  

On the 250th anniversary of Girard’s arrival in Philadelphia, join the Rosenbach for an afternoon seminar focused on the Bass Otis portrait and the story of Girard’s decision to cast his lot with the young American republic.

Gayle Feldman will relate how, through hard work, inspired archival detective work, sheer luck, and knowing the proclivities of her subject, she was able to uncover new information on the role the go-betweens played in putting Joyce's Ulysses into the hands of the right publisher at the right time, who was then able to put it into the hands of waiting readers. 

Join us in the Rosenbach’s historic Library as we look at Joyce’s celebrated novel to uncover the impact of ancient epic poetry on the structure of Ulysses. We will then engage in a close examination of a brief section of the novel to learn how Joyce reconstructs ancient poetic wordplay in a tour-de-force of erudition, competition, and Modernist innovation.

Every June 16, we gather together to read from Joyce’s Ulysses. It’s a beloved and foundational event for this institution, the home of Joyce’s manuscript of a novel that continues to inspire, scandalize, and thrill.

We will explore the books of that period that reveal his experiences, as this descendant of Portuguese Jews forced to convert during the Inquisition collides with New England Puritanism. Our story brings together a compelling cast of characters, a public spectacle in Harvard Yard, and some of Dr. Rosenbach’s treasures of Early American Judaica.

In this hands-on printing workshop, you will use a 19th century iron handpress to create your own, personal copies of U.S. founding documents–such as Common Sense and the Federalist Papers. The workshop will be accompanied by a discussion of how print culture has served as a tool of change and given voice to the people, with examples from the Rosenbach collection.