On Friday, May 16 and Saturday, May 17, 2008, the Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center will be open for the following public events and exhibitions. On Sunday, May 18, the Center for Advanced Judaic Studies (420 Walnut Street) will be open for a collection tour. All alumni, family, friends, and visitors are welcome.

Friday, May 16

Exhibitions open to the public:
-Francis Johnson, Music Master of Early Philadelphia: 4th floor, Ormandy Gallery, 8:30AM-8:00PM
-Recent Acquisitions from the Rare Book and Manuscript Library: 1st floor, Kamin Gallery, 8:30AM-8:00PM
-Textual Spaces: An Architecture of Reading: 6th floor, Rosenwald Gallery, 9:00AM-5:00PM

4:00-5:00 PM: Exhibition Tour: Recent Acquisitions from the Rare Book and Manuscript Library
Kamin Gallery, 1st floor, Van Pelt-Dietrich Library

Join Curator Dan Traister for an introduction to, and the stories behind, new gifts and purchases to the Rare Book and Manuscript Library and the Center for Advanced Judaic Studies. Items on view include medieval manuscripts, early French books, posters, and artists' books.

5:00-7:00 PM: Eat Drink Cookbook Collections
Rosenwald Gallery, 6th floor, Van Pelt-Dietrich Library

Sample hors d'oeuvres selected by Chef Fritz Blank of Philadelphia's former Deux Cheminees restaurant while you sip 1940s cocktails from the recipes of Philadelphian Robert Alexander Montgomery. Peruse cookbooks donated to the Penn Libraries by Chef Fritz, Esther Aresty, and Laurie Burrows Grad, CW '66.

Saturday, May 17

Exhibitions open to the public:
-Francis Johnson, Music Master of Early Philadelphia: 4th floor, Ormandy Gallery, 8:30AM-6:00PM
-Recent Acquisitions from the Rare Book and Manuscript Library: 1st floor, Kamin Gallery, 8:30AM-6:00PM
-Textual Spaces: An Architecture of Reading: 6th floor, Rosenwald Gallery, 10:00AM-4:00PM

12:30-2:00PM: Concert of Early Music
Furness Shakespeare Library, 6th floor, Van Pelt-Dietrich Library

Members of early music ensembles at Penn will perform music for 5 and 6 voices and for recorders by Josquin, Monteverdi, Palestrina, Byrd, Gibbons, Morley, and others.

3:00-4:00PM: Exhibition Tour: Textual Spaces: An Architecture of Reading
Rosenwald Gallery, 6th floor, Van Pelt-Dietrich Library

Join the exhibition curator and staff of the Rare Book and Manuscript Library for an inside look at the department's exhibit "Textual Spaces," which explores the history of reading by looking at spaces in which reading occurs and, in turn, how those spaces affect the types of materials that are read.

4:00-5:00 PM: Exhibition Tour: Recent Acquisitions from the Rare Book and Manuscript Library
Kamin Gallery, 1st floor, Van Pelt-Dietrich Library

Join Curator Dan Traister for an introduction to, and the stories behind, new gifts and purchases to the Rare Book and Manuscript Library and the Center for Advanced Judaic Studies. Items on view include medieval manuscripts, early French books, posters, and artists' books.

Sunday, May 18

10:00-11:30AM: Collection Tour: Rare Judaica
Center for Advanced Judaic Studies Library, 420 Walnut Street

Tour the rare Judaica Book Collection, which includes the oldest Haggadah in the world, hundreds of medieval Hebrew manuscripts and beautifully illuminated scrolls, extraordinary selections of the first generation of printed Hebraica, and much more. Dr. Arthur Kiron, the Schottenstein-Jesselson Curator of Judaica Collections, will lead the tour. RSVP to Christine Walsh at chwalsh@ccat.sas.upenn.edu or 215-898-6654.

For more information:
John Pollack