My Day at the Rosenbach

 

Visitors' Room at the Rosenbach in Philadelphia, PA

On August 29, 2025, I did a group tour of the Rosenbach Museum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This museum is home to the book and antique collection of the Rosenbach brothers. The book collection includes several books by Celtic authors, including Bram Stoker, Robert Burns, and James Joyce, among others.

The Rosenbach brothers, who never married or had kids, lived in the house that was to become the museum. They left the book collection in their wills, wanting it to be turned into a museum that the public could have access to. Now, the Rosenbach Museum exists so people can see the collection, and visitors can come visit the museum and do research.

I went to the museum back in January for their Burns Night event, which was a lot of fun. Even before that event, I had been wanting to go check out the museum and see what was in their collection since I knew there were a lot of Celtic books.

At the Rosenbach, you can do self-guided tours, but I wanted to do a tour with a tour guide. I purchased my ticket in advance, though some people walked up the day of and were able to join the tour. It was a Thursday afternoon, so that likely made a difference. Luckily, I had off work and was able to go.

In my group, there were five other people. A few of the people were all the way from Laguna Beach! I did not get a chance to ask how they found out about the museum, but I know I was unaware of the museum until recently, and I have lived in the Philadelphia area my whole life! After the tour, I took a Lyft to the train station, and the driver, who also lived in the Philly area for some time, did not know about the museum.

I got to the museum a bit before the tour started, so I sat in the visitors’ room. They had a bunch of really cool books, including Dracula and Ulysses, which were also in the main collection. It is highly preferred that you lock your belongings in their lockers. They have keys that lock the lockers. The keys have the locker number on them, and you take the key with you.

The tour started by taking an elevator to the third floor, where we sat around a table and learn about the history of the museum. We then looked around the third floor, which had a room entirely dedicated to British and Irish authors. These books included Robert Burns, Oscar Wilde, and many more. I got chills looking at the collection of Burns’ poetry books. It was so impressive to see them and so many! They even had a death mask of James Joyce, which was cool to see.

James Joyce death mask at the Rosenbach in Philadelphia, PA.

From there, we explored some of the other books and antiques on the other floors. While not every book has a Celtic connection, seeing the books, especially familiar ones, was pretty cool. The sheer number of books on display is astounding, and there are many more that are not out on display all the time.

The second floor had a special exhibit on the British and Irish books in the collection, and we were encouraged to visit these after the tour. They had individual pages from “Dracula” and other famous books with Celtic connections.

Overall, the museum was a great experience. I already have plans to go back with one of my friends, and I would love to check out some of their programs that they offer, beyond just the Burns’ Night event. I would recommend it to anyone who loves books, even beyond the Celtic connections. 

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