Programs


Biblioventures | Sherlock Monthly | Virtual
Mar
15

Biblioventures | Sherlock Monthly | Virtual

November 16, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
December 14, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
January 11, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
February 15, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
March 15, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
April 19, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
May 17, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
June 21, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm

Our Sherlock Mondays Biblioventure was such a success, we’ve decided to continue exploring the Sherlockian canon with Sherlock Monthly. Every month, we’ll focus on one Sherlock Holmes adventure in the order they were first published.

Learn More →
Course | The Sonnet in English with Sean Hughes | Virtual Program
Mar
12

Course | The Sonnet in English with Sean Hughes | Virtual Program

In this course, we’ll explore how great poets across the centuries have used the sonnet. Authors will likely include William Shakespeare, Gwendolyn Brooks, John Keats, Christina Rosetti, John Donne, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Terrance Hayes, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Wanda Coleman, William Butler Yeats, and Percy Shelley. This course will be enjoyable for both people who are new to reading poetry and aficionados alike. 

Learn More →
Book Club | The Body in the Library Book Club: Nekesa Afia, Dead Dead Girls | In-Person
Mar
11

Book Club | The Body in the Library Book Club: Nekesa Afia, Dead Dead Girls | In-Person

This is the third and final session of this series of The Body in the Library Book Club. In this series we celebrate the centennial of the Harlem Renaissance by rediscovering talented mystery writers from the era, and then engage with recent mystery novels set in early 20th-century Harlem. During this session we will be focusing on Nekesa Afia’s, Dead Dead Girls (2021)

Learn More →
Workshop | Book Arts: Printing America’s Founding Documents – A People’s Friend Program | In-Person
Mar
9

Workshop | Book Arts: Printing America’s Founding Documents – A People’s Friend Program | In-Person

In this hands-on printing workshop, you will use a tabletop press to create your own, personal copies of U.S. founding documents–such as the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights—complemented by a selection of important engravings from the Rosenbach’s holdings. 

Learn More →
Workshop | Authentic Heart: Yin Yoga Illuminated by the Work and Life of Mercedes de Acosta | In-Person
Mar
1

Workshop | Authentic Heart: Yin Yoga Illuminated by the Work and Life of Mercedes de Acosta | In-Person

This two-hour workshop, co-led by yogi Liza Seltzer and Rosenbach John C. Haas Director Kelsey Scouten Bates, will introduce you to de Acosta’s work and legacy and invite you to take a deep dive into what it means to be truly authentic.

Learn More →
[SOLD OUT] Behind the Bookcase Tour | The Duties of the Tea-Table: Exploring the History and Culture of Tea | In-Person
Feb
25

[SOLD OUT] Behind the Bookcase Tour | The Duties of the Tea-Table: Exploring the History and Culture of Tea | In-Person

This tour will explore the global, cross-cultural connections forged via the thriving tea market in Europe in the 1600s and 1700s, as well as the role tea drinking played in the cultural history of the British Empire. 

Learn More →
[SOLD OUT] Course | Ulysses Weekly with Robert Berry | Virtual Program
Feb
20

[SOLD OUT] Course | Ulysses Weekly with Robert Berry | Virtual Program

  • February 20, 2025 | 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm

  • February 27, 2025 | 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm

  • March 6, 2025 | 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm

  • March 13, 2025 | 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm

  • March 20, 2025 | 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm

  • March 27, 2025 | 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm

  • April 3, 2025 | 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm

  • April 10, 2025 | 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm

  • April 17, 2025 | 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm

  • April 24, 2025 | 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm

  • May 1, 2025 | 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm

  • May 8, 2025 | 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm

  • May 15, 2025 | 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm

  • May 22, 2025 | 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm

  • May 29, 2025 | 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm

  • June 5, 2025 | 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm

This immersive weekly course will help readers explore (and enjoy) the intricacies, enigmas and hilarities of Ulysses. First time readers of the novel will find many resources for understanding this challenging work.

Learn More →
[SOLD OUT] Course | Huck and James: Reading Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Percival Everett’s James with Edward Whitley | Virtual
Feb
18

[SOLD OUT] Course | Huck and James: Reading Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Percival Everett’s James with Edward Whitley | Virtual

In this five-week online class, we will spend the first two weeks reading Huckleberry Finn. For our third meeting, we will explore the legacy of Huck and Jim in African American culture with a series of short readings from authors such as Toni Morrison, Ralph Ellison, and John Keene. We will spend the final two weeks reading Everett’s James.

Learn More →
Biblioventures | The Picture of Dorian Gray | Virtual
Feb
17

Biblioventures | The Picture of Dorian Gray | Virtual

February 24, 2025 | 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
March 3, 2025 | 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
March 10, 2025 | 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
March 17, 2025 | 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
March 24, 2025 | 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm

Join us on a new Biblioventure with a special subscription-only show on Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray

Learn More →
Biblioventures | Sherlock Monthly | Virtual
Feb
15

Biblioventures | Sherlock Monthly | Virtual

November 16, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
December 14, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
January 11, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
February 15, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
March 15, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
April 19, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
May 17, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
June 21, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm

Our Sherlock Mondays Biblioventure was such a success, we’ve decided to continue exploring the Sherlockian canon with Sherlock Monthly. Every month, we’ll focus on one Sherlock Holmes adventure in the order they were first published.

Learn More →
Reading Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and The Last Man with Vivian Papp | Virtual Course
Feb
11

Reading Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and The Last Man with Vivian Papp | Virtual Course

In this class we will map a chronological route through these two texts from 1818 to today. Shelley will have us rethinking our positions as human beings in a world where the giddy rate of technological advancement far exceeds our potential to maintain even the slightest semblance of balance.  

Learn More →
[SOLD OUT] Reading Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey with Claudia L. Johnson | Virtual Course
Feb
5

[SOLD OUT] Reading Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey with Claudia L. Johnson | Virtual Course

Our class will examine Austen’s simple-seeming language carefully. Having told us that “A woman, especially if she have the misfortune of knowing anything, should conceal it as well as she can,” we will consider the knowledge this novel conceals beneath its sunny un-Gothic surface. 

Learn More →
[POSTPONED] [SEATS AVAILABLE] The History and Future of the American Presidency – A People’s Friend Program
Feb
2

[POSTPONED] [SEATS AVAILABLE] The History and Future of the American Presidency – A People’s Friend Program

On the eve of the presidential inauguration, join the Rosenbach Museum & Library for a consideration of the development of the office of the presidency over the last 249 years. View rare books and manuscripts documenting presidential history from George Washington to Franklin Delano Roosevelt, discuss how the powers of the executive office fit into the separation of powers as outlined in the U.S. Constitution, and reflect on the evolving role of the presidency in the wider work of the federal government and American national life. The tour will include time for reflection and dialogue among participants about the executive office and civic participation.  

Learn More →
[SOLD OUT] Fakes and Forgeries: Forging Shakespeare | Behind the Bookcase
Jan
30

[SOLD OUT] Fakes and Forgeries: Forging Shakespeare | Behind the Bookcase

In the world of antiquity and collecting, how do experts identify the subtle (or glaring!) difference between authenticity and forgery? In this tour, we’ll explore this question 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 in this special edition of the popular Fakes & Forgeries tour, we will spend additional time examining several Shakespeare forgeries by William Henry Ireland.  

Learn More →
[SOLD OUT] Reading Dracula with Edward G. Pettit | Virtual Course
Jan
23

[SOLD OUT] Reading Dracula with Edward G. Pettit | Virtual Course

  • January 23, 2025 | 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm

  • February 6, 2025 | 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm

  • February 20, 2025 | 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm

  • March 6, 2025 | 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm

  • March 20, 2025 | 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm

In this course we’ll consider how Dracula highlights the fears and anxieties of the culture that produced it and discover how this vampire story is just as much about themes of difference and otherness, race and ethnicity, and sexuality and gender, issues still relevant for contemporary readers.

Learn More →
Biblioventures | Sherlock Monthly | Virtual
Jan
11

Biblioventures | Sherlock Monthly | Virtual

November 16, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
December 14, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
January 11, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
February 15, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
March 15, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
April 19, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
May 17, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
June 21, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm

Our Sherlock Mondays Biblioventure was such a success, we’ve decided to continue exploring the Sherlockian canon with Sherlock Monthly. Every month, we’ll focus on one Sherlock Holmes adventure in the order they were first published.

Learn More →
Biblioventures | Sherlock Monthly | Virtual
Dec
14

Biblioventures | Sherlock Monthly | Virtual

November 16, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
December 14, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
January 11, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
February 15, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
March 15, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
April 19, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
May 17, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
June 21, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm

Our Sherlock Mondays Biblioventure was such a success, we’ve decided to continue exploring the Sherlockian canon with Sherlock Monthly. Every month, we’ll focus on one Sherlock Holmes adventure in the order they were first published.

Learn More →
Biblioventures | Sherlock Monthly | Virtual
Nov
16

Biblioventures | Sherlock Monthly | Virtual

November 16, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
December 14, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
January 11, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
February 15, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
March 15, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
April 19, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
May 17, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
June 21, 2025 | 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm

Our Sherlock Mondays Biblioventure was such a success, we’ve decided to continue exploring the Sherlockian canon with Sherlock Monthly. Every month, we’ll focus on one Sherlock Holmes adventure in the order they were first published.

Learn More →
[SOLD OUT] Course | Reading Moby-Dick with Hester Blum | Virtual
Nov
13

[SOLD OUT] Course | Reading Moby-Dick with Hester Blum | Virtual

  • November 13, 2025 | 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm

  • December 11, 2025 | 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm

  • January 8, 2025 | 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm

  • February 12, 2025 | 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm

  • March 19, 2025 | 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm

  • April 9, 2025 | 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm

In this course, which welcomes first-time Melville readers and Moby-Dick obsessives alike, our discussions will range from the novel’s most thunderous, epic heights to its quirkiest, crudest jokes.

Learn More →
Delancey Society Excursion: A Bibliophile’s Guide to Charlottesville
Oct
23
to Oct 26

Delancey Society Excursion: A Bibliophile’s Guide to Charlottesville

As the Rosenbach and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation prepare to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in 2026, we are pleased to offer a once-in-a-lifetime glimpse into the complex history of Jefferson’s famed plantation estate and the libraries he built and enjoyed there.

Learn More →