An Undiscovered Philadelphia Gem: Rosenbach

Over the weekend we visited a virtually undiscovered Philadelphia gem.
Tucked away among the elegant 19th-century townhomes on Delancey Place near Rittenhouse Square, it houses one of the world’s great collections of manuscripts, literature and rare books.
A list of some of the treasures amassed by the two brothers behind this gem is amazing in itself – Lewis Carroll’s own copy of Alice in Wonderland, a first edition of Don Quixote, James Joyce’s handwritten manuscript for Ulysses, and the earliest extant letter from George Washington – but the real treat is to see them among the Egyptian statuary, Persian rugs, 18th-century furniture and Thomas Sully paintings that graced the 1860s mansion during the the brothers' lifetime.
It's the Rosenbach Museum and Library.
The library has more than 130,000 manuscripts and 30,000 rare books; the museum boasts the largest U.S. collection of miniature portraits painted in oil on metal.
The Rosenbach Museum & Library in Philadelphia is the sole repository of the original artwork of famed author and illustrator Maurice Sendak and a foremost authority on all things Sendak.
Author of Where the Wild Things Are and 108 other books, Maurice Sendak chose the Rosenbach to be the permanent home of his work in the early 1970s thanks to shared literary and collecting interests.
The Rosenbach’s Sendak collection is the largest collection of “Sendakiana” in the world, with over 10,000 preliminary sketches, final drawings, manuscripts, books, and ephemera as well as exclusive recent interview footage in which Sendak discusses his life, childhood, work, and inspirations.
And the Rosenbach recently kicked off its commemoration of Civil War 150 with an exhibition focusing on the war’s causes and earliest days, from the pre-war wrangling over abolition and states’ rights to the bombing of Fort Sumter and the first pitched battles.
The museum gets its name from the collections and treasures of Philip Rosenbach and his younger brother Dr. A. S. W Rosenbach. The brothers owned the Rosenbach Company which became the preeminent dealer of rare books, manusceprits and decorative arts during the first half of the 20th century.