Welcome to the Folger
Enjoy great stories | Explore what makes you curious | Share the best in art, history, and literature with friends and family at the world’s largest Shakespeare collection.
The Folger is open! New exhibition galleries, gardens, and shop
What’s on
Join us for in-person and virtual events: theater, poetry, music, and more.
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Into the Vault: Books of the 1620s
Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks
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Folger Book Club: Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks
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Folger Archivist Talk: The Vincent First Folio
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DC & Me: Community Stories from Anacostia
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DC & Me: Community Stories from Mt. Pleasant
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DC & Me: Community Stories from Penn Quarter
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Early Music Seminar: Tale of Two Cities
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Book Reading and Signing with Nicholas Meyer
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Tale of Two Cities
News and announcements
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Folger Shakespeare Library Names Dr. Farah Karim-Cooper as Director
Press release: May 20, 2024
About us
How did the world’s largest Shakespeare collection end up one block from the US Capitol? Explore the Folger’s origin story.
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The latest from our blogs and podcast
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The Roles of the River in Early Modern Times
An excerpt from Reading the River in Shakespeare’s Britain surveys some of the cultural roles of rivers, including how Shakespeare mentioned them in his plays.
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'Year of Wonders' Resource Guide
To prepare for our September 5 discussion of Geraldine Brooks’s Year of Wonders, we have pulled together a list of resources related to plague in early modern England.
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Q&A: Peggy O’Brien on a fantastical Shakespeare map
Peggy O’Brien helps us explore a giant, richly detailed fictional map filled with Shakespeare’s characters, newly created for the Folger’s exhibition spaces.
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Juliet, Then and Now, with Sophie Duncan
Discover how our perceptions of Juliet have evolved over centuries, as Sophie Duncan explores the lasting legacy of Shakespeare’s first tragic heroine.
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“The purpose of playing”: Working with Shakespeare in Sing Sing and Ghostlight
Austin Tichenor explores how the films Sing Sing and Ghostlight show the power and healing of theater and Shakespeare, in both forceful and amusing ways.
Our collection
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The First Folio
The Folger has the world’s largest collection of First Folios. Learn more about the book that gave us Shakespeare.
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A majestic portrait
The Folger collection includes about 200 paintings. This portrait of Queen Elizabeth I by George Gower is dated 1579, making it the oldest painting in our collection. Two years after he completed this portrait, Gower became Serjeant Painter to the Queen, making him the most important artist in England.
Our other Elizabeth I holdings include hand-signed letters, books, and even New Year’s gift rolls detailing her holiday gifts. It is the largest collection of Elizabeth I materials in North America.
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Shakespeare’s works
View the full list of plays and poems to read, search, and download our bestselling editions of Shakespeare’s works.
Shakespeare’s most popular plays
Explore
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What was Shakespeare's theater like?
Learn about the Globe and other London playhouses where Shakespeare’s company performed. What was it like to be an actor there, or an audience member?
Teach
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How can Shakespeare help 21st-century students be stronger readers?
Our Folger Method is revolutionizing how not just Shakespeare but all literature is taught using strategies that allow all students to own – and enjoy – complex texts.
Research
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If we are what we eat, what can recipes from the past tell us?
Projects like Before ‘Farm to Table’ unite scholars and practitioners in investigations into the past to shed light on what matters to us today.
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Support the things you love
Your gifts make access to our collection, learning opportunities, and exciting experiences happen.