Tagged Rosenbach

Bloomsday is back!

The Rosenbach's annual Bloomsday festival is BACK on Delancey Place after a two-year hiatus. Join the celebration on Thursday, June 16 anytime between 11:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. What  is  Bloomsday? Bloomsday is the day…

Dracula at 125

Written by Edward P. On May 26, 1897, visitors to bookshops in London found a new book, for just six shillings, published by Constable and Co., bound in a lurid yellow cloth cover with blood red letters announcing its strange…

Rosemary for Shakespeare

Written by Isabel S. April 23 marks the day that we traditionally celebrate William Shakespeare’s birth and deathday, though neither of those occasions are confirmed to have actually been on the 23rd. Shakespeare was baptized on…

Reimagining a Recipe for Radical Self Care

by Jena Harris and Suzanna Urminska "In every race, in every nation and in every clime in every period of history there is always an eager-eyed group of youthful patriots who seriously set themselves to right the wrongs done to…

#SpecialCollectionsAtHome

The Free Library of Philadelphia is home to a myriad of Special Collections . Since mid-March, we have been closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This means that those of us who work with the Special Collections, are unable to work…

The Ulysses Every Day Reading Challenge

For literature enthusiasts and first-time readers alike,  Ulysses  can be every bit as daunting as it is thrilling. If you’ve always wanted to read James Joyce ’s masterpiece, or are eager for any excuse to revisit…

Mark Gatiss Visits The Rosenbach to Film New Dracula Documentary

The Rosenbach was delighted to have writer, actor, and director Mark Gatiss visit in June to shoot scenes for his In Search of Dracula documentary, which was just released on the BBC. Along with Stephen Moffat , Gatiss created a new…

The Remarkable Afterlife of Emily Dickinson

An early letter by Emily Dickinson. Two months ago, I spent an evening in a dimly lit room scrutinizing the handwriting of a long-dead person with a group of mostly strangers. Scraps of 150-year-old paper were passed around for us to…

The Free Library Celebrates Herman Melville’s Bicentennial

Call me Ishmael. It’s one of the most famous sentences in U.S. literature—and the opening statement of what is often called "the great American novel": Herman Melville ’s 1851 epic Moby-Dick . But what do we…

Happy 200th Birthday, Herman Melville!

August 1, 2019 marked the 200th anniversary of Herman Melville ’s birth. In honor of his bicentennial, we are proud to present American Voyager: Herman Melville at 200 , a new exhibition on display at The Rosenbach , October 3,…

Summer of Wonder at The Rosenbach

Another Summer of Wonder is here and The Rosenbach is again excited to offer free admission for families to the museum ! Once you step through the museum’s stately front doors, you’ll find a house filled with weird, wacky,…

Visit the Free Library and The Rosenbach During Wawa Welcome America

Wawa Welcome America —the annual festival marking the birthday of the United States here in its very own hometown, Philadelphia—returns once again. From Saturday, June 29, to Thursday, July 4, enjoy free celebratory and…

ReJoyce! Bloomsday Returns to The Rosenbach

The Rosenbach 's annual Bloomsday festivities will be held on Sunday, June 16, falling on Father’s Day this year! What is Bloomsday? Bloomsday is an annual event where the world celebrates Leopold Bloom’s…

We Celebrate Him: Walt Whitman at 200

I celebrate myself — When lilacs last — I contain multitudes — O Captain! my Captain! What other U.S. poet’s work can be recognized by so few words—and by so many people—as that of the self-proclaimed…

Take History in the Palm of Your Hand with this New Series from the Free Library's Special Collections

The late and great Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell once sang, "Ain’t nothing like the real thing baby." These words hold true for how to best experience our material culture. People who have visited the Rare Book…

At These Crossroads: The Legacies of Frederick Douglass and W.E.B. Du Bois Exhibition

Update: The Free Library’s At These Crossroads exhibition was honored as an Adobe Government Creativity Awards finalist in the ‘Multichannel Campaign – Museum of Park Exhibit’ category! Come see this exhibition…

Break Out Your Garlic Necklaces and Wooden Stakes for Bram Stoker's Bday!

by Michelle Sheffer Today marks Irish writer Bram Stoker ’s 171st birthday. Author of Dracula —the inspiration for many a nightmare and pop-culture meme over the past two centuries—Stoker compiled and wrote his iconic…

Better Together: The Free Library Partners with Schools

Now more than ever , students and teachers at our schools need the information and skills that librarians and libraries can provide. This year, the Free Library is working to spread the word about the information, ideas, and resources…

Introducing the Division of Cultural and Civic Engagement!

The Free Library was founded with the goal of helping Philadelphians achieve personal enlightenment, and has continuously evolved to reach this goal in an ever-changing city and world. To further this bedrock goal, we have created the…

Join The Rosenbach for a Marathon Reading of Moby-Dick!

If you’ve ever joined our friends at The Rosenbach for Bloomsday , you know how fun (and slightly surreal) it can be to hear a book read aloud over an extended period of time. Well, the next Bloomsday may be several months off…