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.”

Join the Rosenbach Museum & Library in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Abbotsford: The Home of Sir Walter Scott, in the Scottish Lowlands for a transatlantic book club experience! As the United States commemorates 250 years of independence and we mark 210 years since the publication of Sir Walter Scott’s historical novel The Antiquary, the book club will consider how national identity has been formed and reforged via history, literature, and culture in both Scotland the U.S.

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.

Join the Rosenbach Museum & Library in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Abbotsford: The Home of Sir Walter Scott, in the Scottish Lowlands for a transatlantic book club experience! As the United States commemorates 250 years of independence and we mark 210 years since the publication of Sir Walter Scott’s historical novel The Antiquary, the book club will consider how national identity has been formed and reforged via history, literature, and culture in both Scotland the U.S.

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.

In this hands-on printing workshop, you will use a 19th century iron handpress to create your own, personal copies of U.S. founding documents–such as Common Sense and the Federalist Papers. The workshop will be accompanied by a discussion of how print culture has served as a tool of change and given voice to the people, with examples from the Rosenbach collection.

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.

Every June 16, we gather together to read from Joyce’s Ulysses. It’s a beloved and foundational event for this institution, the home of Joyce’s manuscript of a novel that continues to inspire, scandalize, and thrill.

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.

Gayle Feldman will relate how, through hard work, inspired archival detective work, sheer luck, and knowing the proclivities of her subject, she was able to uncover new information on the role the go-betweens played in putting Joyce's Ulysses into the hands of the right publisher at the right time, who was then able to put it into the hands of waiting readers. 

On the 250th anniversary of Girard’s arrival in Philadelphia, join the Rosenbach for an afternoon seminar focused on the Bass Otis portrait and the story of Girard’s decision to cast his lot with the young American republic.

As we mark the 250th anniversary of Stephen Girard’s arrival in Philadelphia in 1776, come to historic Founder’s Hall to learn about this notable Philadelphian’s remarkable life story, explore the collection of books, manuscripts, artworks, and artifacts he left behind, and consider his complex, contested legacy for his adopted city and nation.  

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. 

• January 13, 2026 | 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm ET

• February 10, 2026 | 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm ET

• March 10, 2026 | 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm ET

• April 7, 2026 | 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm ET

• May 12, 2026 | 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm ET

Step into the shadows of history with “Mad” Women. Over the course of five months, we will uncover richly imagined stories based on real figures or inspired by historical events—women imprisoned, executed, or exiled under the guise of madness or moral corruption. These aren't just tales of guilt or innocence. They are stories about women whose truths were too complex for the world to bear. Expect rich discussion, challenging themes, and a space to question everything you've been taught about madness and morality. 

This four-session class will cover the foundations of letterpress, from setting metal type to pulling prints. Learn about the history of printing through exploring an extraordinary publication: Phillis Wheatley’s Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral.  

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 John Wind will provide all the other supplies needed to embellish and frame the image in a meaningful and personal way.  

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. 

Our Hobbit fun continues with this subscription-only show with two of the leading Tolkien scholars in the world, Michael D.C. Drout and Corey Olsen. In this four episode series we’ll explore the medieval works that influenced Tolkien, as well as his translations and famous essays.

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. 

This five-week course offers an in-depth exploration of Anne Brontë’s life and works. The youngest of the Brontës, Anne is sometimes overshadowed by her elder sisters, whose works have achieved greater prominence in literature and culture. Yet Anne’s writing is no less powerful or profound, offering a unique voice unafraid to confront and represent the darker, more uncomfortable aspects of 19th-century culture. Through close reading, discussion, and consideration of the historical context of her two published novels, Agnes Grey (1847) and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848), this course will explore what Anne had to say about morality, gender, class, religion and the struggle for independence. We will give particular attention to how and why Anne wanted to interrogate and challenge Victorian social conventions with clarity and courage.  

Our course will take place across six sessions, with one week between each meeting.

We’ll examine how William Davenant’s departures from (and additions to) Shakespeare’s original text transformed the tragedy for new audiences—and what these changes reveal about the play’s afterlife. 

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.

Jewish activism before and during the American Revolution helped set the stage for the new United States’ Constitution. Paul Finkelman will discuss this important history of Jewish participation in the American Revolution. 

Let’s bring back the Medieval trend of wearing books as fashion accessories! In this hands-on bookbinding class, you will craft a belt book inspired by the Rosenbach’s 1364 illuminated almanac [MS 1004/29], which is also known as a “bat book.” 

In this five-session course, we will uncover some of the medieval influences upon Eliot’s most famous work, including selections from The Wasteland, Four Quartets, and Murder in the Cathedral. Along the way, we’ll investigate how and where he draws upon the Arthurian Grail cycle, Christian mysticism, and The Canterbury Tales.