Episode 5 | Titanic: The Rise of Dr. A.S.W. Rosenbach. A Conversation with Judith M. Guston, Curator & Director of Collections at The Rosenbach

Written By Amber Manning

Walter Crane (designer) and J.A.J. Wilcox (engraver), bookplate of Harry Elkins Widener, with inscription “To Mr. Philip H. Rosenbach in return for many kindnesses. Harry E. Widener.” Rosenbach bookplate collection.

The Rosenbach is eternally linked to the sinking of the R.M.S. Titanic by means of Dr. A.S.W. Rosenbach’s friendship with young Philadelphia book collector Harry Elkins Widener, who died onboard the ill-fated vessel.  In this episode of The Rosenbach Podcast, the first in a four-part miniseries about the Titanic, join podcast host Dr. Alexander L. Ames and Rosenbach Curator & Director of Collections Judith M. Guston in the Rosenbach reading room to learn the basic details of The Rosenbach’s Titanic and Widener family story, as the two view historic documents and rare books in the collection that record this tragic but pivotal episode in the lives of The Rosenbach’s founders. 

Further Resources

Curious to learn more about The Rosenbach’s holdings connected to the Elkins and Widener families? Try searching those names in our online objects and manuscripts database.

To learn more about Harry Elkins Widener’s bookplate and view letters sent by famous designer Walter Crane to Widener, check out this digitized volume of correspondence held at the Houghton Library, Harvard University.

Amber Manning

I founded AmberCo. when I was five years old. Over the years, it has offered a variety of services from house cleaning, babysitting, car washing, travel planning, interior design and more. After college, I serendipitously fell into working for a web development company and I never looked back. I am happy that AmberCo. has finally settled on a mission that helps people in a meaningful way. I am also happy that some of the original services AmberCo. offered (cleaning and organizing) have carried through into its current iteration. I have been lucky enough to work for significant nonprofits such as the Sierra Club and the International Committee of the Red Cross and small local companies such as Hinkel Equipment Rental and Indars Stairs. My favorite part of working in technology is finding creative solutions for people and making their day to day work easier.

https://amberco.co
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Episode 6 | A Mother’s Grief, a University’s Library: How Eleanor Elkins Widener’s Loss on the Titanic Changed the Rare Book World.

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Episode 4 | Artifacts of Inspiration: Authorship, Activism, and the Archive. A Conversation with Philadelphia Poets Laureate Trapeta Mayson and Yolanda Wisher