The Rosenbach's verdant urban hideaway (our backyard garden) connects us to the grottoes of antiquity that influenced French and Italian gardens, fine art, and design after the discoveries of the ruins of Nero's Domus Aurea in the 1480s and Pompeii in 1599. These artifact-filled European gardens provided refuge from summer heat and the possibility of transformative encounters, both human and divine. In this program, we will discover the ancient myths found in the Rosenbach's garden sculptures and connect them to the literature inside our building that present and reinterpret ancient themes, including works by Homer, Sappho, Catullus, Shakespeare, Wheatley, and Joyce. 

Join an odyssey through the Rosenbach’s mighty Melville collection in this Behind the Bookcase tour. We’ll chart our voyage through early editions of Melville’s novels and handwritten letters, seeking the source of his greatness and reflecting on his legacy in the modern day. All aboard as, in the words of Moby-Dick’s Ishmael, we “sail about a little and see the watery part of the world.”

Experience the founding of America through original manuscripts and early printed editions that bring to life the work of John Adams, Founding Father and second U.S. President; Abigail Adams, humanitarian and activist; George Washington, Revolutionary commander and first U.S. President; Thomas Jefferson, Declaration author and third U.S. President; Phillis Wheatley, the first published African American poet; and their contemporaries.

For many centuries, Queer people have faced marginalization by mainstream society. Yet their obstacles have also given them unique perspectives on the human experience and inspired important contributions to art, literature, and politics. In this tour, we will meet Queer people from history and consider how their diverse identities shaped their lives and informed their work.

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.

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.

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

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. 

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 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. 

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. 

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.

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. 

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.  

“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.  

Join us for a hands-on experience with the Brontëana in the Rosenbach’s collection, including a letter from Charlotte to her good friend Ellen Nussey and a manuscript of Charlotte’s preface to Jane Eyre.

Herman Melville possessed a warm heart for human nature, a cold eye for the human condition, and the ability to write prose that would awe a Biblical prophet. Join an odyssey through the Rosenbach’s mighty Melville collection in this Behind the Bookcase tour. We’ll chart our voyage through early editions of Melville’s novels and handwritten letters, seeking the source of Melville’s greatness and reflecting on his legacy in the modern day. All aboard as, in the words of Moby-Dick’s Ishmael, we “sail about a little and see the watery part of the world.” 

Join us for this rare peek into some of the most personal and emotional writing in our collections. We’ll start with the yearnings of poet and notorious romantic John Keats, who signed “yours forever” in letters to the object of his affection, Fanny Brawne. Spend an evening with us as we get up close and personal with a variety of treasures, like handwritten pages from James Joyce’s Ulysses, correspondence from Marlene Dietrich to Mercedes De Acosta, and much more.

Join us for this rare peek into some of the most personal and emotional writing in our collections. We’ll start with the yearnings of poet and notorious romantic John Keats, who signed “yours forever” in letters to the object of his affection, Fanny Brawne. Spend an evening with us as we get up close and personal with a variety of treasures, like handwritten pages from James Joyce’s Ulysses, correspondence from Marlene Dietrich to Mercedes De Acosta, and much more.

From hidden doorways to forgotten realms, this Behind the Bookcase Tour takes readers deep into the heart of classic fantasy. 

Explore some of the first books printed in the Hebrew language, which date to the 15^th century. Each has its own visual beauty and story to tell about early printing in Europe, local cultural tensions, and cross-cultural alliances, change, and continuity. Whether you are a reader of Hebrew or not, you can engage with these volumes and learn about early works of philosophy, literature, and faith.

Mathematician and cleric Charles Lutwidge Dodgson published children’s books under the pen name Lewis Carroll. This tour will explore both the man and the author, showcasing letters from Dodgson to his publishers, original drawings by John Tenniel (the illustrator of the Alice books), photographs of children taken by Carroll, and of course, copies of his books. We may not figure out why a raven is like a writing desk, or believe six impossible things before breakfast, but it is sure to be an enlightening tour, nonetheless.

What is the difference between a fake and a forgery? How do either of those differ from a copy? And why does authenticity matter in museum collections? In this tour, we’ll explore these questions with a wide range of objects in the Rosenbach’s collection. We’ll look at some of “Shakespeare’s” greatest works, a mug that once “belonged” to George Washington, a manuscript draft by Edgar Allan Poe, and more to uncover the truths and reveal the mysteries that follow fakes and forgeries. 

In celebration of the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth, we honor her alongside the remarkable women novelists of the 18th and 19th centuries who reshaped literature and claimed their place in history.

The Harlem Renaissance is the fulcrum for this look “behind the bookcase” at great Black writers. Beginning with Paul Laurence Dunbar, the first acclaimed Black poet after Emancipation, we’ll spend the bulk of our time with letters and first editions of poet Langston Hughes and philosopher Alain LeRoy Locke. 

Come study Emily Dickenson’s letters in her own writing, re-examine the first editions of her works, and learn how her first editors reshaped her poetry to fit their own conceptions. We’ll explore the myth of the Belle and learn more about the Modern Emily. 

Get up close and personal with material culture in this special collaborative Behind the Bookcase tour! This program will bring some of the beautiful and bizarre items that make up the over 1 million objects of the Winterthur Library collection to the Rosenbach. 

Get up close and personal with material culture in this special collaborative Behind the Bookcase tour! This program will bring some of the beautiful and bizarre items that make up the over 1 million objects of the Winterthur Library collection to the Rosenbach. 

Venture boldly into Bram Stoker’s handwritten notes for Dracula (character and chapter outlines, chronologies, and more!) and, with Rosenbach staff, explore what it took to create this (almost) inexorable villain.