Today’s guest post is by Kate Duffy, a Collections Intern at the Rosenbach Museum & Library.Greetings, Rosen-blog readers! This post is full of commonplaces. But stifle your yawn! The word “commonplace” did not always carry connotations of triteness and cliché. For early modern Europeans, commonplaces were witty verses, notable observations, or other compelling turns-of-phrase. Here …
Fresh Blood
With the oppressive heat and humidity of a Philadelphia summer bearing down on us, our fall Dracula festival seems very far away. But I am excited about a recent addition to our collection of supernatural stories–an early American printing of John Polidori’s The Vampyre. The Vampyre was the first English vampire story and established many …
Happy 4th of July
Happy 4th of July weekend from all of us here at the Rosenbach! If you are going to any parades or fireworks this weekend, you’ll probably be hearing a lot of everyone’s favorite song from the American Revolution–Yankee Doodle. But did you know that the Rosenbach has a unique copy of what is possibly a …
My First Bloomsday
Elyse Poinsett here, the official stand for the Special Events and Marketing hats at the Rosenbach. Most of you probably know me best as the voice behind our e-newsletter (sign up here!), facebook page, and Twitter feed. As a relatively new Rosenbacher, I was pretty overwhelmed by my first Bloomsday and I’ve decided to steal …
Bloomsday Countdown
Things are busy around here today, so no time for a long post. If you haven’t already started, there probably isn’t time to read Ulysses by tomorrow, but you can always check out the BBC’s Cheat’s Guide to Ulysses if you missed Bloomsday 101 last night (plus it features a comment from Stephen Fry). You …
Hobos at the Rosenbach
As you may have noticed, the temperature and humidity in Philadelphia have been a bit, shall we say, variable over the past week. Such swings are not good for books and art, since it can cause them to expand and contract, soak up moisture, etc. So we do our best to keep everything as stable …
Around Town
Last week we talked about a couple of projects around the web; this week I wanted to mention a couple of performance projects around town which have come to my (wandering) attention. First off is Gibraltar, at Plays and Players. Last week we talked about Ulysses Seen, which is Ulysses adapted as a graphic novel; …
Tilting at Windmills and Touring Dublin –All From the Comfort of your Chair
Who knows if the internet makes us smarter or dumber, but it sure is fun. Here are a couple of new items from across the web which have a bit more literary worth than your average video of dancing kittens. Don Quixote:Don Quixote was Dr. Rosenbach’s favorite book and not only do we have many …
Guest Post by Susan Sklaroff: Annual Docent Trip
Two weeks ago, a group of our hardworking Rosenbach docents embarked on the annual docent trip. For the first time, this was an overnight adventure, with the Hudson River Valley as their destination. Rosenbach docent Susan Sklaroff has kindly given me permission to repost her blog entry about the excursion. Photographs are thanks to docents …
April Showers Bring May Flowers
Here are a selection of floral tidbits from across the Rosenbach collection on this beautiful May day. A wallpaper cover for a 1743 Poor Richard’s pocket almanac.[Benjamin Franklin], A pocket almanac for the year 1743. . . By R. Saunders, philom. Philadelphia: Printed by B. Franklin, [1742] 742p A watercolor painted by Marianne Moore in …