Sponsored by Bruce McKittrick Rare Books 

All Course Dates

Weekend Fieldtrips:

• Saturday, March 6, 2027 | Time TBD

• Saturday, April 3, 2027 | Time TBD

• Saturday, April 17, 2027 | Daylong trip to New York | Time TBD

Regular Course Meetings:

(Held at the Rosenbach)

• Tuesday, February 2, 2027 | 6:00pm - 8:00pm

• Tuesday, February 9, 2027 | 6:00pm - 8:00pm

• Wednesday, February 17, 2027 | 6:00pm - 8:00pm

• Tuesday, February 23, 2027 | 6:00pm - 8:00pm

• Tuesday, March 2, 2027 | 6:00pm - 8:00pm

• Wednesday, March 10, 2027 | 6:00pm - 8:00pm

• Tuesday, March 16, 2027 | 6:00pm - 8:00pm

• Tuesday, March 23, 2027 | 6:00pm - 8:00pm

Registration

• Tuition for this course is $600. Members receive exclusive discounts on our programs and courses. Not a member? Learn more.

• Please check your spam folder for your email confirmation. If you have questions, please call (215) 732-1600 or email rsvp@rosenbach.org.

• This program is for those 18 and older.

• The Rosenbach offers current undergraduate/graduate students and recent grads of the last three years a 20% discount for The Curator’s Toolkit 2027. Email rsvp@rosenbach.org to receive a discount code.

• Scholarship information can be found below.

Description

Do you love discovering fascinating stories from history? Have you ever wanted to get up close and personal with museum and library collections, including rare books and manuscripts, as well as fine and decorative arts? If so, then this course is for you.    

The Curator’s Toolkit will equip you with knowledge and skills for handling, studying, preserving, and learning from fine art, antiques, rare books, and manuscripts at the Rosenbach Museum & Library and beyond, and give you hands-on, behind-the-scenes access to world-renowned museum and library collections in both Philadelphia and New York City. You will have the opportunity to study the museum exhibition design process, research an object in the Rosenbach collection, and write text for the collaborative online database Engaging Liberty, a project of the Philadelphia Area Consortium for Special Collections Libraries. In this course, the Rosenbach and its partner institutions become your laboratories for the study and enjoyment of art, artifacts, and historic texts. 

The winter/spring 2027 run of the course will have two special areas of focus. All students will research and write about objects from the Rosenbach’s Mercedes de Acosta collection, which documents the life, literary work, and romantic heartaches of a prominent LGBTQ+ figure in the early 20th century. We will use this collection as a lens through which to consider gender, sexuality, identity, marginal status, and the role of cultural heritage institutions in preserving diverse and inclusive histories. Given Acosta’s New York roots, the course will culminate in a weekend field trip to New York City to visit the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair and enjoy a behind-the-scenes tour of at least one famous New York cultural heritage landmark. (Transportation between New York and the Rosenbach will be provided.) 

Scholarships & Fellowships

Thanks to the generosity of Bruce McKittrick Rare Books, sponsors of the 2027 Curator’s Toolkit course, the Rosenbach can offer four scholarships and one fellowship, each of which covers tuition, book purchase, and field trip transit to New York City. The scholarships are intended for students and early-career professionals seeking training to enhance their education and skills, with the goal that students will then share their new knowledge and wisdom with others. 

Emerging professionals in the related fields of library science, archives, material culture, museum studies, public humanities, decorative arts, and the book trades may apply to be McKittrick Scholars.  

Given the course’s focus on the Mercedes de Acosta collection, the Rosenbach will also appoint a William H. McCarthy, Jr. Fellow in the Study of Gender & Sexuality. The McCarthy Fellow should plan to pursue a career in public humanities/cultural heritage, possess particular interest and expertise in gender and sexuality studies, and have a proven track record of working to advance causes of equity related to gender, sexuality, and marginalized identity with the arts/cultural heritage sector and beyond. 

The McCarthy fellowship is named for William H. McCarthy, Jr., the distinguished first curator and director of the Rosenbach and a noted bibliographer with interests in women’s literature, and he possessed the forethought to acquire the Acosta collection at a time when the importance of preserving Queer lives and literature was little recognized. The Rosenbach is engaged in a multi-program effort to shed new light on his memory and examine the many facets of McCarthy’s life and career; this fellowship aims to honor his immense Rosenbach legacy. 

To apply for one of the five available full-ride scholarship/fellowship opportunities, please send Dr. Alex L. Ames (alames@rosenbach.org) a CV/résumé and an application essay of 500–750 words, addressing the following points: 

• Your background and interest in library science, archives, material culture, museum studies, and/or the book trade 

• Your professional interests in these or related fields 

• How the Curator’s Toolkit experience would round out your education and prepare you for your future 

• How you will positively impact the world by means of your Curator’s Toolkit experience 

• Any financial or other hardships that make this scholarship/fellowship a good opportunity for you. 

A single application will suffice for dual consideration for both the scholarship and fellowship tracks; please indicate in your essay if you have a particular interest in the McCarthy Fellowship. 

Applications are due by 5:00 p.m. EST on Friday, December 4, 2026. A committee of Rosenbach staff will select recipients and communicate their decision on or around Friday, December 18.