We like to celebrate Beatrix Potter every day here in the Rare Book Department , but today is her 151st birthday, so it's extra-special. You probably remember Peter Rabbit and his… continue reading Birthday Bread and Milk and Blackberries for Beatrix Potter

By written by Caitlin G.    July 28, 2017    3

• Rare Book Department
• Beatrix Potter

Much has been written in academic journals about the need to increase access to special collections in public libraries, museums, and universities. This topic is particularly relevant to the … continue reading Traveling Treasures: A Special Collection Worth Touching

By written by Joe S.    May 5, 2017   

• Digital Collections
• Rare Book Department
• Special Collections

We all know Benjamin Franklin, Philadelphia's everyman. Poor Richard . Diplomat of the Revolution . Inventor of the Glass Harmonica . Postmaster General . Guy Who Flew A Kite in a… continue reading "Pay to Benjamin Franklin, for Printing"

By written by Caitlin G.    April 28, 2017   

• Rare Book Department
• Childrens Books
• Special Collections

Move over, London! England’s capital city may count Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot among its resident gumshoes, but only Philadelphia can be called the true birthplace of the modern… continue reading #MysteryMonday: Get Clued in to Edgar Allan Poe and More

By written by Alix G.    April 10, 2017    2

• Rare Book Department
• Manuscripts
• Edgar Allan Poe
• Rosenbach
• We the Detectives

Do you love The Da Vinci Code ? Have you ever wished you could uncover a secret code in a medieval manuscript? Exciting news! Your wish may come true! Take a look at the image of a 15th-century… continue reading Mysterious Manuscripts and "Mirror Writing"

By written by Diane B.    March 9, 2017    1

• Rare Book Department
• Manuscripts

The Rare Book Department 's Judaica includes a beautifully written and lavishly hand-decorated Spanish Hebrew Masoretic Text bible . Commissioned in 1496 in Lisbon, Portugal, the book is… continue reading Librarian Traces Family Roots Through Historic Bible

By written by Caitlin G.    February 24, 2017   

• Rare Book Department
• History
• Religion

His wasn’t an auspicious beginning and his end remains shrouded in mystery... 208 years ago today, Edgar Allan Poe was born to actors David Poe Jr. and Elizabeth Arnold Hopkins Poe, in… continue reading Celebrate Poe's Life with Our Rare Book Collection

By written by Allison F.    January 19, 2017    1

• Rare Book Department
• Edgar Allan Poe

Philadelphia is a wild and weird city. There’s so much to love, to hate, to love to hate, and to hate to love. There’s also so much that we, as every day Philadelphians, have somehow… continue reading Philadelphia: City of the Uncanny and the Arcane

By written by Sarah M.    January 5, 2017   

• Events at the Library
• Rare Book Department
• History
• Religion

This One Book, One Philadelphia season takes us back in time to the Civil War era, as we travel and travail alongside fictional southerners Inman and Ada in Charles Frazier’s Cold Mountain .… continue reading #OneBookWednesday: The Civil War on Display

By written by Kathy H.    January 20, 2016   

• One Book, One Philadelphia
• Rare Book Department
• Rosenbach

To celebrate the landmark papal visit to Philadelphia, the Rare Book Department at Parkway Central Library has opened a new exhibition of rare religious texts. Running through January 30,… continue reading Sacred Stories: The World's Religious Traditions

By written by Janine P.    August 31, 2015   

• Exhibitions
• Rare Book Department

Purim is celebrated every year on the 14th of the Hebrew month of Adar. It is a day of feasting and rejoicing, commemorating the deliverance of the Jewish people from a plot to annihilate… continue reading Purim and a Medieval Cutting in the Free Library of Philadelphia

By written by Joe S.    March 4, 2015   

• Rare Book Department

The Free Library of Philadelphia is proud to present Framing Fraktur , a three-month celebration of historic Pennsylvania German folk art and its relationship to contemporary art, opening today… continue reading Announcing Framing Fraktur!

By written by Michelle S.    March 2, 2015   

• Exhibitions
• Art
• Events at the Library
• Rare Book Department
• Pennsylvania German Collection

We’re excited to share our newly digitized Oscar Wilde manuscripts, part of the rich collection of literary manuscripts and first editions in the Rare Book Department. The draft of The… continue reading Oscar Wilde Manuscripts

By written by Samantha M.    November 25, 2014    3

• Digital Collections
• Rare Book Department

bardolatry n. idolatry or excessive admiration of William Shakespeare 1 There is an exhibition going on in the Rare Book Department right now that you really need to see. It’s called… continue reading Bardolatry in the Rare Book Department

By written by Janine P.    April 9, 2014   

• Exhibitions
• Rare Book Department
• Year of the Bard

Last night, the Free Library of Philadelphia celebrated the grand opening of the new William B. Dietrich Gallery in the Rare Book Department at Parkway Central Library . Made possible by a… continue reading Free Library Opens the New William B. Dietrich Gallery at Parkway Central Library

By written by Michelle S.    January 30, 2014   

• Exhibitions
• Rare Book Department
• Year of the Bard

John Derstine Souder (1865-1942) was raised on a Mennonite farm near Telford in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.  He was a storekeeper, postmaster, and poultry dealer before retiring. … continue reading John Derstine Souder’s Fraktur in the Henry Stauffer Borneman Pennsylvania German Collection

By written by Del-Louise M.    December 9, 2013   

• Art
• Rare Book Department
• Pennsylvania German Collection
• History
• Manuscripts

“I must do what is right for me,” he muttered under his breath while gathering up his tools and shuttering the shop window.  Jacob Eichholtz was living a double life, and it soon… continue reading I Must Do What Is Right For Me ~ The Jacob Eichholtz Book of Sketches and Painterly Advice

By written by Del-Louise M.    November 14, 2013    1

• Art
• Artists Books
• Rare Book Department
• Pennsylvania German Collection
• History

The first part of the story of the Browne Hours was posted on Thursday, October 24 th . For the first part, read here . Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury, was killed by four knights… continue reading The Browne Hours, Part II

By written by Katharine C.    November 5, 2013   

• Parkway Central
• Rare Book Department
• Manuscripts

A Book of Hours takes its name from the so-called “Little Hours of the Virgin,” a collection of eight prayers that is derived from the Divine Office—the canonical hours observed… continue reading The Browne Hours

By written by Katharine C.    October 24, 2013   

• Rare Book Department
• Manuscripts

I was only a little girl when my Grammy had me kneel before her in their little church.  She anointed my  forehead with oil, and laid her hands on me.  I was sick, but I can’t… continue reading MAGICAL CHARMS ~ MEDICAL CURES

By written by Del-Louise M.    October 15, 2013    3

• Healthcare
• Rare Book Department
• Pennsylvania German Collection
• Manuscripts