Location and Hours: Marianne Moore’s Living Room can be found at the Rosenbach Museum and Library. Near the Rittenhouse Square neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at 2008-2010 Delancey Place. Can be easily reached using public transportation such as SEPTA, Amtrak, NJ Transit, and PATCO.
The Rosenbach Museum and Library is open: Tuesday and Friday 12pm-5pm, Wednesday and Thursday 12pm-8pm, Saturday and Sunday 12pm-6pm. Research appointments are available Wednesday and Thursday 10:30am-12:30pm and 1:30pm-6pm as well as Friday 10:30am-12:30pm and 1:30pm-4:30pm. The Rosenbach is closed on Mondays and on national holidays. Cost of admittance is $10.00 for adults, $8.00 for seniors 65 and older, $5.00 for students and children 5 and older, free for children under 5, and free for Rosenbach members.
For more information, call (215) 732-1600 or e-mail info@Rosenbach.org
About the Site: The Rosenbach Museum and Library was founded by the Rosenbach brothers who were avid collectors of rare books and manuscripts. Tours of the brothers’ home are available, as well as Hands-On-Tours of featured collections during which permission is granted to handle rare manuscripts. Marianne Moore’s Hands-On-Tour includes a tour of her recreated living room and the opportunity to handle correspondence between Moore and writers such as Maurice Sendak.
Significance: Modernist poet Marianne Moore’s living room from her New York apartment has been recreated at the Rosenbach using Moore’s own furnishings. Moore donated her furniture and artwork to the Rosenbach and was inspired to do so by Maurice Sendak, who was Moore’s neighbor in New York and who also donated his personal items to the Rosenbach. Moore’s collection at the Rosenbach offers insight into both her writing and her life, as she used her living room for writing, entertaining guests, and displaying countless animal figurines, autographed baseballs, and books.
Marianne Moore and Her Work
Born: November 15, 1887 in Kirkwood, Missouri
Died: February 5, 1972 in New York
Educated: Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania, 1909, history, law, and politics
Important Works: Poems, 1921; Observations, 1924; The Pangolin and Other Verse,, 1936; What Are Years, 1941; Nevertheless, 1944; Collected Poems, 1951; The Complete Poems, 1981; The Complete Prose, 1989.
Interesting Bio Fact: Marianne Moore loved to save correspondence and often made carbon copies of letters she sent to writers such as H.D, Ezra Pound, and T.S. Eliot. More than 3,000 correspondents are part of her collection at the Rosenbach Museum and Library.
Elsewhere in the Area: Mutter Museum, The Franklin Institute, Academy of Natural Sciences, Academy of Music, Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Lauren Hassall, Temple University