The Rosenbach Podcast

In our final episode, artist John Wind returns for a conversation about the vital role research plays in the creative process. Together, we explore how deep dives into archives can uncover forgotten stories, inspire new artworks, and bridge past and present in meaningful ways. 

We’re joined by Elizabeth Fuller, librarian at the Rosenbach Museum and Library, who brings insight into the lives and legacies of John Frederick Lewis and Belle da Costa Greene—two towering figures in the world of rare books and collecting, whose stories are woven into the fabric of the DEAR JOHN installation. 

From Greene’s pioneering work as a woman at the highest levels of the rare book world to Lewis’s foundational impact on the Rosenbach, this episode highlights how the stories behind the collections are as powerful as the objects themselves. 

Art begins with questions, and often, the answers lie in the archives. 

What happens when art meets the sacred? 

In this episode, we explore the intersection of faith, heritage, and artistic interpretation through the lens of Judaica. 

Curator and Director of Collections Emerita Judy Guston joins artist John Wind to discuss how Jewish ritual objects play a central role in the DEAR JOHN installation at the Rosenbach. Together, we examine how contemporary art can honor, reframe, and activate the spiritual and cultural meanings embedded in these sacred items. 

Family heirlooms inspire, reflecting on the power of objects to carry memory, identity, and emotion. This episode examines how presenting them within a contemporary installation invites new questions about reverence, representation, and ritual. 

How can contemporary artists reshape our experience of museums, archives, and the stories they hold? 

In this episode, artist John Wind joins me for a roundtable conversation with curator Bill Adair and artists Teresa Jaynes and Gabriel Martinez. Together, we explore how artists are stepping beyond conventional boundaries to reinterpret historic collections and make archives more accessible, inclusive, and emotionally resonant. 

From reimagining the role of the viewer to challenging the conventionality of the institution, our guests discuss the power—and responsibility—of contemporary art to invite new voices, new interpretations, and new connections. 

Set against the backdrop of DEAR JOHN at the Rosenbach, this episode asks: What does it mean to activate a collection? And how can artists help us see the past—and ourselves—more clearly? 

Teresa Jaynes discusses her work and what inspires her. Learn more about the woman named "Meaty" here:Méaty (also Miati) Fleuron (née Rauscher) was the stage name of a late 19th- and early 20th-century French actress and music hall performer. Like many other celebrities, including her sister Lise (1874-1960), she was depicted in collectible photographs and photo postcards. The Rosenbach collection includes other such photos of subjects, including the dancer Rosario Guerrero and the singer Maud Laverne.

What can a portrait reveal? 

In this episode, we welcome Bill Valerio, the Patricia Van Burgh Allison Director and CEO of the Woodmere Museum, for a rich conversation about the work of Cecilia Beaux, one of the most celebrated portrait painters of the Gilded Age. Known for capturing the personalities and inner lives of her subjects, Beaux’s work offers a window into the social and cultural fabric of her time. 

We also explore how portraiture features within the DEAR JOHN installation, where selected works by Beaux appear alongside letters, objects, and other ephemera. Artist John Wind returns to discuss how these painted faces contribute to the installation’s themes of identity, memory, and emotional connection. 

Join us as we delve into the layered meanings of portraiture, and how the human face continues to speak across time. 

In this episode, we continue our exploration of the DEAR JOHN installation at the Rosenbach Museum and Library, turning our attention to the role of family, heritage, and personal legacy. 

We’re joined by Rudy Lewis, great-grandson of noted philanthropist and bibliophile John Frederick Lewis, whose deep ties to the Rosenbach offer a unique perspective on family history and the preservation of memory. Artist John Wind returns to discuss how these themes echo throughout DEAR JOHN, as personal letters, heirlooms, and archival material blur the lines between public history and private lives. 

Together, Rudy, John, and I reflect on how family stories, whether inherited or discovered, shape identity and creative expression. It's a conversation about connection, both generational and emotional, and how art can hold space for both. 

In our first episode of Season 5, we step inside the Rosenbach Museum and Library, a hidden gem in the heart of Philadelphia known for its extraordinary collection of rare books, manuscripts, and historical objects. We begin our journey in the Treasures Gallery—a space dedicated to exploring the material text and the stories objects can tell. 

This episode features contemporary artist John Wind, whose intimate and thought-provoking installation DEAR JOHN brings a deeply personal lens to the Rosenbach’s literary and archival treasures. Blending art, history, and correspondence, Wind invites us to consider how identity, memory, and emotion can be captured—and reimagined—through letters and found objects. 

Join The John C. Haas Director of the Rosenbach, Kelsey Bates, Senior Director of Collections Engagement at the Rosenbach, Alexander Lawrence Ames, and me, Karen Grossman, Library and Musuem Educator, for a conversation about the intersection of art and archives, the emotional resonance of the written word, and how DEAR JOHN connects the past with the present in profoundly human ways.  

Dive deeper into the Treasures Gallery installation “DEAR JOHN” with your host Karen Grossman and special guest, the acclaimed artist John Y. Wind 

“DEAR JOHN” is ultimately a love letter – a conversation across time. It is a celebration of reinvention, resilience, and the enduring power of art and history. We hope you'll join us for this season of The Rosenbach Podcast. 

The importance and impact of the Rosenbach’s collection is local as well as global.  

As the Rosenbach Museum & Library prepares to open two more Treasures galleries, one focused on continental European literature and another focused on American history, this episode of the podcast shines a spotlight on an important portrait hanging in the Rosenbach’s stair hall, just outside the Treasures galleries. Bass Otis’s 1831 portrait of the French-born Philadelphia merchant Stephen Girard connects the Rosenbach to the history of Girard’s philanthropic activities in Philadelphia—and the Civil Rights activism that reshaped Girard’s local legacy in the 1960s. We’ll journey to Girard College in North Philadelphia to learn about Stephen Girard’s business empire, charitable activities (including the founding of the school), and the origins of the Girard Ginger, a favorite dessert baked at the college for more than a hundred years. We’ll bake a batch of Girard Gingers and teach you how to make your own at home this holiday season! 

Would you like to see the Bass Otis portrait of Stephen Girard in person? Reserve a Rosenbach introductory tour ticket today! Learn more at https://rosenbach.org/visit/. Also, plan your visit to the Founder’s Hall Museum at Girard College by visiting http://www.foundershall.org/.

When you step inside Treasures from the Rosenbach’s Collection: Literature of Great Britain and Ireland, two of the first people you will see are Phillis Wheatley and Charles Ignatius Sancho, both of whom were born slaves but ended up becoming important published authors. Their works offered critiques of the British imperial project and enslavement in America. The Rosenbach holds copies of important editions of their books today.  

Wheatley and Sancho are pivotal early figures in Black British literature. In this episode of The Rosenbach Podcast, Professor Sheila Sandapen of Drexel University introduces us to some of the key themes shaping postcolonial Black British literature and makes a few suggestions as to authors and book titles for those who wish to explore the subject.   

Would you like learn more about Sancho, Wheatley, and other figures in British literature? Reserve a Rosenbach introductory tour ticket today! Or, visit us during open hours and purchase a gallery and garden ticket. Learn more at https://rosenbach.org/visit/.

Many of the treasures Dr. A.S.W. Rosenbach purchased for his own library and to sell to wealthy clients once belonged to aristocratic British families. Dr. Rosenbach paid many visits to the United Kingdom, purchasing volumes from book-rich, cash-poor landed families. This heritage, documented in the archives of the Rosenbach Company held at the Rosenbach Museum & Library today, raises an important question. What role did (and do) country house libraries play in preserving England’s books, manuscripts, and other literary and historical treasures? 

In this transatlantic episode of The Rosenbach Podcast, Dr. Alexander Lawrence Ames interviews Fran Baker, Archivist and Librarian at Chatsworth House Trust in beautiful Derbyshire, England, about the role of country house libraries in preserving some of Great Britain’s most spectacular bookish treasures. 

Would you like to explore the treasures of the Rosenbach’s British literature collections? Reserve a Rosenbach introductory tour ticket today! Or, visit us during open hours and purchase a gallery and garden ticket, with which you can access the Treasures gallery. Learn more at https://rosenbach.org/visit/.  

Note: Following the recording of this episode, Fran Baker’s professional title changed to Head of Archive & Library at Chatsworth House Trust. Congratulations Fran!