Tagged Rosenbach
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
Born in 1868, just shortly after the Union’s triumph in the Civil War and the emancipation of enslaved African Americans, William Edward Burghardt (W. E. B.) Du Bois died in 1963, just one year before Congress passed the Civil…
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…
Have a Whale of a Time Celebrating Herman Melville!
Badum-bum… All bad puns aside, today is Herman Melville's birthday (his 199th – next year will be a big one!) and the Free Library is paying tribute to the American Homer! Our friends at the Rosenbach have an extensive…
Join the Free Library for Wawa Welcome America Festivities!
For the past 25 years, America’s birthplace (Philly, of course!) has celebrated America’s birthday (July 4, of course!) with Wawa Welcome America – a multi-day festival of FREE multicultural and multigenerational…
Journey Around the World at the Rosenbach This Summer!
For the second year in a row, Summer of Wonder is teaming up with the Rosenbach 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…
Celebrate National Poetry Month
It’s April, everyone, and you know what that means – it’s National Poetry Month ! Each year, the Academy of American Poets "highlights the extraordinary legacy and ongoing achievement of American poets" by…
Violet Oakley and Edith Emerson: Painters and Partners
Now on view at the Rosenbach, Of Two Minds: Creative Couples in Art & History showcases the creations of romantic couples who inspired, instructed, or even assisted one another in making art or knowledge. In honor…
Celebrating History's Unsung Creative Couples
On February 7, we opened a new exhibition celebrating the art and achievements of romantic couples, from the powerful royalty of the 16th century to cinema stars of Old Hollywood to local artists creating together today. Of Two…
Winter Reflections on the Year Without a Summer
Greetings from Frozen Philadelphia! After a snowy beginning to the new year and a lot of single-digit temperatures, we're bundled up and back in the office. And as we shiver on our way to and from the museum, we're…
Frankenstein200 at the Rosenbach
On January 1, 1818, the London publishing house Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones published a book titled Frankenstein , or The Modern Prometheus . The publication did not name its author, but the book had a…
Reading Moby-Dick for the First Time
I’ve never read Moby-Dick . I know! I work at the Rosenbach, where one of the world’s best collections of Herman Melville’s work resides, and I haven’t read his most famous book. I’ve admired his…
The Science of Bram Stoker's Dracula
Since Frankenstein & Dracula: Gothic Monsters, Modern Science opened on Friday the 13th of October, I’ve fielded a few questions from surprised visitors: Dracula , really? It’s not difficult to see the…
Librarian of Congress Dr. Carla Hayden Visits the Free Library of Philadelphia!
Earlier this week, Librarian of Congress Dr. Carla Hayden made a whirlwind visit to the Rosenbach and the Parkway Central Library , and we couldn't have been more thrilled to have her! On her tour, she was able to view a selection…
Rosh Hashanah Is a SWEET Time to Visit the Free Library
Rosh Hashanah —the celebration of the Jewish new year—begins at sundown on Wednesday night, September 20. Even those not celebrating the holiday may be preparing, as Philadelphia schools are closed Thursday and Friday .…
Mary Shelley's Indestructible Heart
As the opening date for Frankenstein & Dracula approaches, we've been revisiting some of the strange ( and occasionally salacious ) stories from the lives of the Romantic authors whose dark and imaginative stories…
#ThrowbackThursday: Re-reading Beatrix Potter’s Little Pig Robinson
Little Pig Robinson , published in 1930, is the last book in Beatrix Potter’s Peter Rabbit series , though it was one of the first to be written. In a letter from 1893, Potter described seeing a pig on a ship in the harbor at…