This holiday season, help the Rosenbach and the Winterthur Library mark the 250^th birthday of Jane Austen with a Pride & Prejudice-themed tea party in the parlor and dining room of the historic Rosenbach townhome on beautiful Delancey Place in Philadelphia!  

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.

• May 13, 2025 | 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm

• June 3, 2025 | 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm

• July 8, 2025 | 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm

• September 9, 2025 | 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm

• October 14, 2025 | 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm

• November 11, 2025 | 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm

• December 9, 2025 | 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm

This special book club season of The Ladies of the House of Love will begin with three iconic Gothic works, including one, Ann Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794), that Austen heavily satirizes in Northanger Abbey. Then, the club will explore lesser-known books that Austen references as “horrid novels” in Northanger. Finally, on December 9, 2025, just one week before Austen’s 250th birthday, the club will read Northanger Abbey and hold a birthday party for the Authoress.  Don’t miss this unique opportunity to immerse yourself in the world of the Gothic as part of a community of fellow book lovers and Janeites!

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. 

Delancey Society members are cordially invited to enjoy cocktails, hors d’oeuvres, and holiday cheer at the gracious home of Rosenbach Board Member Lenni H. Steiner.  

Portrait miniatures originated in 16th century Europe, where these small, hand-painted likenesses were designed to be portable and personal keepsakes. They were tokens of affection, mementos of loved ones, and status symbols. Painted on vellum or ivory, they were often framed with precious metals and jewels like cameos. The tradition continued until the advent of photography in the mid-19th century.   

In “DEAR JOHN,” a special exhibition in the Rosenbach’s Treasures: History of the Material Text gallery, artist John Wind takes inspiration from this tradition but shifts the emphasis from the subject to the frame—concocting elaborate, exuberant compositions that provide a more modern take on the genre. 

Make your own Portrait Miniature in this in-person workshop. Bring a small photo or print of a favorite image (up to about 4”x5”) and Wind will provide all the other supplies needed to embellish and frame the image in a meaningful and personal way.  

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. 

This American history book club is a partnership of Carpenters’ Hall and the Rosenbach Museum & Library. Sessions meet variously at Carpenters’ Hall and the Rosenbach; check individual program descriptions for details. At least one book club session in the season will include a presentation of rare collection materials related to the themes and topics under discussion during the meetings. 

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. 

• May 13, 2025 | 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm

• June 3, 2025 | 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm

• July 8, 2025 | 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm

• September 9, 2025 | 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm

• October 14, 2025 | 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm

• November 11, 2025 | 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm

• December 9, 2025 | 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm

This special book club season of The Ladies of the House of Love will begin with three iconic Gothic works, including one, Ann Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794), that Austen heavily satirizes in Northanger Abbey. Then, the club will explore lesser-known books that Austen references as “horrid novels” in Northanger. Finally, on December 9, 2025, just one week before Austen’s 250th birthday, the club will read Northanger Abbey and hold a birthday party for the Authoress.  Don’t miss this unique opportunity to immerse yourself in the world of the Gothic as part of a community of fellow book lovers and Janeites!

Books have been worn for hundreds of years. Come learn how to make some wearable books based on historical miniature volumes in the Rosenbach’s collection. You will end the class with two tiny blank books that can be turned into necklaces or a pair of earrings! All materials and tools will be provided. No experience necessary.

Join the Rosenbach Museum & Library and GALAEI for a celebration of the 100^th anniversary of the Harlem Renaissance, a literary and artistic movement centered in Harlem, New York that witnessed an explosion of achievement by Black artists working in many genres.   

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.

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.

James Joyce was one of the 20th century’s most complex, influential, paradoxical, irreverent, domineering, problematic, and rewarding writers; Ulysses (pub. 1922) is, if not Joyce’s most difficult work, certainly his most beloved and consequential one. This reading group aims to acquaint first-time readers with Ulysses and to give those already familiar with the novel the opportunity to deepen their engagement with it.

Grab your mat (and maybe your fangs and cape, too?) and join us for a candlelit, Dracula-inspired yoga practice! We’ll have some fun linking imagery and themes from this Gothic horror classic to a gentle flow yoga sequence.  

Following the practice, participants will have the opportunity to explore the Rosenbach’s vampire-related collection items during a special, private after-hours viewing of Treasures from the Rosenbach’s Collection: Literature of Great Britain & Ireland, where selections from the Rosenbach’s renowned Dracula and vampire collections are on view. Please bring your own yoga mat. Costumes encouraged!

This American history book club is a partnership of Carpenters’ Hall and the Rosenbach Museum & Library. Sessions meet variously at Carpenters’ Hall and the Rosenbach; check individual program descriptions for details. At least one book club session in the season will include a presentation of rare collection materials related to the themes and topics under discussion during the meetings. 

Join the Rosenbach and Opera on Tap Philadelphia for a spooky and scintillating program exploring the rare books, manuscripts, and music of madness. “Mad scenes” fill literature and opera, often focusing on heroic (or villainous) women who succumb to the pressures of the societies in which they live. This spine-chilling evening will shed new light on some of the most famous mad characters of literature and opera. 

By exploring personal letters and rare first editions, we’ll gain insight into the challenges Wilde faced as a brilliant and controversial voice in Victorian society, caught between acclaim and persecution.

• May 13, 2025 | 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm

• June 3, 2025 | 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm

• July 8, 2025 | 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm

• September 9, 2025 | 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm

• October 14, 2025 | 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm

• November 11, 2025 | 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm

• December 9, 2025 | 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm

This special book club season of The Ladies of the House of Love will begin with three iconic Gothic works, including one, Ann Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794), that Austen heavily satirizes in Northanger Abbey. Then, the club will explore lesser-known books that Austen references as “horrid novels” in Northanger. Finally, on December 9, 2025, just one week before Austen’s 250th birthday, the club will read Northanger Abbey and hold a birthday party for the Authoress.  Don’t miss this unique opportunity to immerse yourself in the world of the Gothic as part of a community of fellow book lovers and Janeites!

Dracula is one of the most renowned epistolary novels of all time. The thrilling, chilling, and above all creeping dread invoked by Bram Stoker’s vampire builds within the everyday diary entries, newspaper clippings, and letters of our protagonists. 

Create your own suspense-filled letter in this two-part class.

This free, casual open house is the perfect way to explore the Rosenbach at your own pace and introduce your friends and neighbors to the institution.  

In this tour, we’ll connect historical treasures of the Rosenbach collections to the contemporary creative field of Book Arts.

The apparent simplicity of Emily Dickinson’s poetry is deceptive—beneath her brief, direct language lies profound depths of emotion and insight. In this three-part yoga series, we’ll explore her life and work through movement, breath, and reflection. Each session will weave selected poems into a gentle and meditative yoga sequence, inviting you to embody Dickinson’s themes of solitude, transformation, and wonder. 

For over a century, readers have been thrilled by Arthur Conan Doyle’s adventures of the world’s first consulting detective, Sherlock Holmes, and his assistant, Dr. John Watson, as they battled the criminal forces of London. We’ll use our magnifying glasses to inspect not only first editions of these stories and Doyle’s handwritten manuscript of the Holmes story, “The Adventure of the Empty House,” but also investigate some of the earlier influences of the mystery/detective genre, like Edgar Allan Poe and Charles Dickens.

This American history book club is a partnership of Carpenters’ Hall and the Rosenbach Museum & Library. Sessions meet variously at Carpenters’ Hall and the Rosenbach; check individual program descriptions for details. At least one book club session in the season will include a presentation of rare collection materials related to the themes and topics under discussion during the meetings. 

The game is afoot! Investigate the realm of detective and spy literature in this Behind the Bookcase tour. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to discover connections between famous fictional mysteries and the lives—and legacies—of real-world spies. Explore early mystery stories including Charles Dickens’s Bleak House, examine an original cypher belonging to a female socialite and Civil War spy, and exercise your sleuthing skills to detect a forgery in the Rosenbach’s collection. 

Celebrate the start of the fall season at the Rosenbach with cocktails, light fare, and a special after-hours opportunity to visit our permanent galleries, Treasures from the Rosenbach’s Collection.