Walking into the Rosenbach Museum & Library in Philadelphia, PA is like walking into the warm home of an old friend, assuming that this old friend is extraordinarily wealthy, and has a vast collection of rare art, manuscripts, and antique furniture.  The museum, which is the converted apartment of the Rosenbach brothers Philip and Abraham, blends in with the other townhouses in the historic row on Delancey Street.

What first drew me, and what draws many visitors to the Rosenbach Museum, is the current Maurice Sendak exhibition. Avid fans of Where the Wild Things Are have been flocking to view the museum’s extensive collection of the author and illustrator’s work since it opened in May of this year.

Enlarged sketches and quotations by Maurice Sendak line the Crayola crayon colored yellow, orange and blue walls of the first of three rooms in the exhibit. They reveal the author behind some of the most beloved childhood books, and offer insight into why he created his memorable characters.

“What made Sendak’s work immediately recognizable was the vitality of gesture, expression, and movement of his characters,” a placard above a glass case of original Sendak novels and sketches reads. “In whichever way he catches the exuberance of kids being kids, Sendak remains concerned with interpreting their feelings in his pictures.”

Maurice Sendak has a way of capturing children in his stories and illustrations that are charming accounts of the innocence, and hopefulness of childhood, a time where there are few burdens and endless dreams. Whether he is telling the story of Max’s imaginative journey to the land of “wild things” or the entertaining adventures of a “Little Bear” Sendak reveals his connection to, and understanding of, childhood.

“What interests me is what children do at a particular moment in their lives when there are no rules, no laws, when emotionally they don’t know what is expected of them,” reads a large conversation bubble, quoting Sendak himself, on the gallery wall.

This interest and focus on children by Sendak is what originally sparked the connection between Maurice Sendak and the Rosenbach Museum, a fact that was revealed to me as I took the tour of the Rosenbach brothers’ home.

The love of collecting and sharing that the Rosenbach brothers coveted is also what connects them to Maurice Sendak, who was also an avid collector. Sendak’s work first appeared in the Rosenbach home as part of Abraham’s beloved children’s books collection, and re-appeared when Sendak and the Museum sparked a deal that both alleviated space in Sendak’s private studio and allowed the museum to constantly display his work.

Perfectly preserved, and spotlessly clean, the brother’s home, which was the original and only site of the museum before it expanded into the adjacent townhouse, reveals the thoughts and lives of two men who were avid collectors of rare, and beautiful items. The business of the Rosenbach brothers was searching both America and Europe for rare items at the request of wealthy benefactors. The goal of the brothers was not only to fulfill these requests, but also to find artifacts of their own to share with the common person.

“Many of the items Philip and Abraham found were not available in Philadelphia or America,” says tour guide Farrar Fitzgerald, in a tone that reveals both her Rosenbach knowledge, and love of the brother’s history. “The Rosenbach brothers had access to these items and they wanted to share.”

As we travel from the sitting room, to the dining room, to Abraham’s third floor library I am hit again and again with an extreme appreciation that the brothers were so adamant about sharing their finds. The sitting room features glistening red floral love seats, chests and grand chandeliers that appear untouched since the brothers passed away in the early 1950s. The dining room table is a mix of delicate, breath taking china that covers every spectrum of color and is currently set in an “Alice in Wonderland” theme that Fitzgerald tells me changes frequently. However, despite the aesthetic beauty of the materialistic items that fill the downstairs rooms, I am most captivated upon entering Abraham’s private library.

There is not a space on the glass-paned shelves, lining the rooms from floor to ceiling, that is not filled by a novel or folder bound manuscript. As I peer at each title my heart pounds faster as my mind registers the magnitude of the literary collection. Original copies of Alice in Wonderland, A Christmas Carol, and Ulysses stare back at me and beckon to be read from cover to cover. The museum has placed three glass cases in the centers of the two library rooms that hold opened copies of books and letters, and display scrawled handwriting of James Joyce and Andrew Jackson. This vast collection is a treat that is eaten up by groups of children and adults each week.

“Another interesting thing about being a collector is that the pieces together tell a story,”says Fitzgerald before I exit the museum and return to the icy reality outside. The Rosenbach Museum overflows with stories that everyone should discover.