The Rosenbach and Dickens

The Rosenbach Museum and Library is the culmination of the collections of Abraham and Phillip Rosenbach.  These men were Philly-born brothers who had an interest in antiques; Phillip collected antique furniture while Abraham was more interested in books and writing.  Although neither brother ever met Charles Dickens, there is a fairly large collection of his original writings there.  This is a little odd because although Dickens did spend some time in America, he was not very fond of it here.  He openly criticized our culture and materialism in his writing entitled American Notes for General Circulation, which was published after his return to England following his tour in the United States.  For this reason, it is interesting that some very valuable pieces of his work should be kept here in America instead of his beloved homeland of England.  Although this may not have been exactly what Dickens himself would have wanted, I don’t necessarily think it is a bad thing.  Abraham Rosenbach was a big believer in having his collections open to the public, so that everyone could enjoy them without having to travel to somewhere like England.  This, in my opinion, is definitely a good thought, because otherwise someone like me would never be able to enjoy them.  With this in mind, I think how they are displayed and interpreted should be the main focus of the argument, since if the display is really great, more people are going to be able to view and appreciate the work.

I found the Rosenbach to have a nice feel to it; it doesn’t have the traditional museum feeling with large empty rooms with small exhibitions scattered throughout.  Instead, the collections were kept as the brothers had it, in a normal little townhouse on Delancy Place.  The rooms are set up with the priceless artifacts, but they are arranged in such a way that it just looks like your average house.  This allows closer interaction and appreciation for the objects.  The only thing that really frustrated me was that in spite of the fact that they are in possession of some very valuable pieces of Dickens’ work, not much is done to advertise or display it.  The museum offers these “Hands-On Tours”, where visitors can come and handle the manuscripts and get a close up view of the objects on hand.  However, there is only one offered for Dickens, whereas for others such as Marianne Moore or Maurie Sendak, there are several.  This proved to be an especially large problem, because I made the mistake of requesting a spot on the Dickens tour too late and it was cancelled due to low attendance.  Therefore I will be unable to go on a specialized tour of the Charles Dickens collection, which is a shame.

That being said, the operators of the Rosenbach are very kind and extremely helpful.  They apologized for missing the Dickens tour, even though that was really my mistake, and offered me the business card of the librarian, who is willing to make a private appointment with me and essentially tell me everything there is to know about the collection, since she is the expert of all the written works at the museum.  I am especially appreciative of this willingness to help after hearing the stories of my classmates, who are struggling with people at their site being unwilling to discuss their collections with young students such as ourselves. 

All-in-all, I was very impressed with the Rosenbach, although I do wonder why they do not place more of an emphasis on their Charles Dickens collection.  As I have still not yet seen it, I am unable to really comment on the interpretation offered at this museum, but after meeting with the librarian I should be able to shed some more light on this issue.  From what I have seen, though, I am not particularly enthusiastic about the display, since it seems to be much harder than necessary to get a look at these items which the founder of the museum hoped to be accessible to the public.