The Rosenbach Podcast

The Rosenbach’s Collections Department is responsible for stewarding the physical wellbeing of collections objects, meaning that we regularly work with conservators, who perform repair treatments on our objects to guarantee their safety for years to come.  In this episode, join Associate Curator Dr. Alexander L. Ames and Senior Book Conservator Richard Homer at the Conservation Center for Art...

The collections of the Rosenbach Museum & Library are dynamic, growing, and changing to meet the needs of the present and the future.  Join Rosenbach Curator & Senior Director of Collections Judith M. Guston, Librarian Elizabeth E. Fuller, and Associate Curator Dr. Alexander L. Ames in the reading room of the Rosenbach for a conversation about the strategies they employ to identify an...

Following the crowning of the Rosenbach Test Kitchen winner, Associate Curator and host of The Rosenbach Podcast Dr. Alexander L. Ames sits down with acclaimed foodways scholar Dr. Psyche Williams-Forson for a conversation about how historians and other scholars make use of libraries, archives, museum collections, and other primary sources in their research.  Williams-Forson takes listeners b...

The cooking is done, the dishes are prepped, the table is set, and Rosenbach Test Kitchen judges are ready to critique the submissions!  Grab your seat at the dining room table with Rosenbach Curator and Senior Director of Collections Judy Guston and Librarian Elizabeth Fuller, as they critique dishes inspired by Rosenbach collections items that contestants prepared in the previous episode. T...

In the first episode of Rosenbach Test Kitchen, join Associate Curator and host of The Rosenbach Podcast Dr. Alexander L. Ames in the reading room of the Rosenbach with Director Kelsey Scouten Bates, Curator and Senior Director of Collections Judy Guston, Librarian Elizabeth Fuller, and Registrar Jobi Zink for some research into American history, as the team locates historic dishes represented in...

Stress and excitement are both running high in the kitchen, as Rosenbach Test Kitchen competitors Kelsey Scouten Bates, Jobi Zink, and Alex Ames cook up their historic dishes for presentation to the Test Kitchen judges.  Dishes include a vegetable soup, turkey with oyster sauce, asparagus with egg, macaroni with cheese, a peach julep, ginger beer, and lemon ice cream for dessert.  Grab y...

Books are not just literary and historical artifacts; they can also be visual artworks.  In this episode of The Rosenbach Podcast, renowned Philadelphia-based pop-up book artist Colette Fu introduces us to her art form and explains what inspires her to explore cross-cultural interactions by means of the pop-up book.

Museum and library exhibitions and collections have long been sources of public dialogue.  Dr. Rosenbach and his brother and business partner Philip Rosenbach participated in one of the most ambitious exhibitions focused on rare books and documents in American history: the Freedom Train project of the 1940’s, launched shortly after the end of the Second World War.  The spirited public de...

Libraries, archives, museums, and the collections they contain are essential for the healthy functioning of democratic societies.  Using the story of Dr. Rosenbach’s charity book auction described in Episode 11 as a starting point, this episode of The Rosenbach Podcast features a conversation with Richard Ovenden, O.B.E., Bodley’s Librarian at the University of Oxford.  Our conversation...

As the Jewish people faced persecution under the Nazi regime, Dr. A.S.W. Rosenbach, a prominent member of the Jewish American community, sprang into action to raise funds for refugees by means of a charity book auction held in New York.  This episode of The Rosenbach Podcast reveals how Dr. Rosenbach activated his social and civic networks for a cause he believed in—and which other luminous f...

Shortly before his death with the sinking of the R.M.S. Titanic, Harry Elkins Widener visited the shop of Bernard Alfred Quaritch in London.  The business continues to operate today and holds fascinating records of the Widener family’s patronage so many years ago—as well as communications between Dr. A.S.W. Rosenbach and Bernard Alfred Quaritch as news of th...

In this episode of The Rosenbach Podcast, a continuation of Episode 6, our team of experts from Harvard University continues to reflect on what Eleanor Elkins Widener’s recovery from grief following the loss of family members onboard the R.M.S. Titanic reveals about the grief process—and how her construction of the Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library at Harvard...

The loss of Harry Elkins Widener onboard the R.M.S. Titanic inspired his mother, Eleanor Elkins Widener, who survived the maritime disaster, to build a great library at Harvard University in her son’s honor.  She collaborated closely on the project with Dr. A.S.W. Rosenbach—an endeavor that helped launch Dr. Rosenbach’s career.  In this episode of The Rosenbach P...

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 R...

How can rare books and special collections like those held at The Rosenbach speak to modern-day American life?  Why are material artifacts important in understanding our cultures’ history and future?  In the first episode of The Rosenbach Podcast, join host Dr. Alexander Lawrence Ames for an evocative voyage into The Rosenbach’s collections of...

The Rosenbach holds internationally-significant collections of fine art, decorative art, and rare books, some of which reside in the beautiful parlor in the historic Rosenbach home.  Yet all is not as it seems in this familiar space, which is filled with artifacts documenting the globally-diverse history of early America and the Philadelphia region in particular.  In this episode,&n...

The Rosenbach’s collections draw researchers from around the world to visit our reading room and study books, manuscripts, and other objects.  In this episode, recorded in the reading room, Elizabeth E. Fuller, the Librarian of The Rosenbach, introduces us to The Rosenbach’s collections of rare books and manuscripts and shares a few of her favorite items in the c...

Books, historic documents, and other artifacts do not just record the past; they can inspire us to create a better future.  In this episode of The Rosenbach Podcast, Philadelphia Poets Laureate Yolanda Wisher and Trapeta Mayson tell us about what objects in The Rosenbach’s collection they find particularly inspirational for their own literary work.  Wisher and Ma...

Following in Dr. Rosenbach’s footsteps, in this episode of The Rosenbach Podcast, we will take our own trip to the Royal Library at Windsor Castle and speak with a Royal Collection Trust staff member about the work of the Library today.  Rachel Scott of Royal Collection Trust shares her thought about the book Dr. Rosenbach’s acquired from the Royal Library and tells us what it’s like to work at Wi...

The Rosenbach’s collections include many objects with connections to European royalty.  One such object is a book that was acquired as a gift from the Royal Library at Windsor Castle.  In this episode, learn about this precious relic from a transatlantic voyage Dr. Rosenbach undertook in the 1920’s.