Rosenwald History
Completed in 1939, Alverthorpe Manor was home to Lessing and Edith Rosenwald. Originally the historic Fisher estate, the site included Fisher’s named Alverthorpe after an ancestral home in England. Rosenwalds razed the older house and replaced it with a modern residence combined with a museum wing to house and protect a growing art collection. While the Georgian exterior was designed to blend with the traditional style of many Philadelphia homes, the interior, especially the museum wing was very modern and used the latest technologies. The architect was Ernest Grunsfeld Jr. of Chicago, a Rosenwald cousin whose Adler Planetarium is a national landmark of Art Deco architecture. In 1969 Lessing Rosenwald donated his elegant home, Alverthorpe Manor, to Abington Township with the stipulation that ownership of the museum wing would remain private until his death.
Over his lifetime, Lessing Rosenwald created one of the world’s finest art collections, which to this day includes over 2,600 rare books dating back to the earliest illuminated manuscripts and 24,000 fine art prints and drawings. Rosenwald gave unprecedented access to his collection while it was in Jenkintown. He was known for being generous with his time, personally guiding visitors and scholars through the collection. To this day, many artists, scholars and community neighbors reminisce fondly about Mr. Rosenwald’s hospitality and the masterpieces he would enthusiastically lay in their hands to study, marvel and enjoy. Upon his death, the collection left Jenkintown for new homes at the Library of Congress and the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC.
Lessing J. Rosenwald was Chairman of the Board with Sears, Roebuck and Co. from 1932-1939, when he retired to dedicate himself full-time to collecting art. Rosenwald believed in sharing what he acquired and was often quoted as having said, “A work of art that is never seen is little better off than a work of art that has never been created.”
In 1943, Mr. Rosenwald pledged his collection to the Library of Congress and the National Gallery, both of which had few significant historical holdings of the quality represented in his collection. Mr. Rosenwald then dedicated his resources to expanding the collection until his death in 1979. The Rosenwald Collection is exceptional in its breadth and depth, but also in its quality and condition. The print collection is an encyclopedia of printing techniques: line engravings from Dürer; etchings by Rembrandt; mezzotints; aquatints; lithographs and silk screen prints. The rare book collection’s strengths are its 15th century woodcut books, early 16th century illustrated books, William Blake books, and 20th century livres des peintres by artists such as Bonnard, Rouault and Picasso.
