Q&A: Greg Prickman on Imprints in Time, a dazzling special exhibition

As part of our extensive new exhibition spaces, the Stuart and Mimi Rose Rare Book and Manuscript Exhibition Hall includes an area for temporary special exhibitions. To inaugurate the space, the exhibition Imprints in Time (which runs through January 5, 2025) offers 52 extraordinary items from the well-known, wide-ranging Stuart and Mimi Rose Collection. Every one of the objects, from an ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead to an Apollo 11 flight plan sheet that flew to the Moon and back, is distinct and astonishing.

Greg Prickman, the Folger’s Eric Weinmann librarian and director of collections and interim director of the Folger Shakespeare Library, curated the exhibition. He recently spoke with us about Imprints in Time and the many special exhibitions to come.

Before we talk about Imprints in Time, which is the very first special exhibition in the temporary exhibition space: for people who are getting to know the new exhibition space, do you see this as a special location that visitors will be especially drawn to?

I do. The temporary exhibition space will transform a couple of times a year, so there will be new things to see, but also new ways to experience those things. It’s also within the exhibition hall as a whole, in which we’re always going to have other material from the Folger collection. So it’s not an isolated experience; it’s one that invites you into a topic or an idea, but it doesn’t isolate itself from other things that are taking place.

And when it’s a new show, it’ll be entirely different.

Correct. Obviously, the material that you’ll see will be different, but we’ll be able to tailor that space to do different things over time. So it’s worth returning to.

So the first special exhibition is Imprints in Time, which consists of 52 highlights from the Stuart and Mimi Rose Collection. How did you select the items as you worked with the Rose collection? I’ve noticed that there is a level of quality and rarity that is remarkable—for example, there might be a first edition, but the author has also inscribed it to a key literary figure.

That is exactly in keeping with Stuart Rose as a collector. If he is going to go after a specific item or the works of a specific author, he is always looking for the most extraordinary copy that he can of something. And often that’s an association. It’s the dedication of the author to a close friend or a family member. It’s the earlier editorial stage of a work that shows the hand of the author. I wanted to have that mix of material that would provide these moments of discovery, moments of astonishment.

What’s really been interesting is being in the space with visitors. To this day, I’m amazed at the reactions that people have in that space, the excitement at seeing these things. These are people of all ages. They are kids, teenagers, college students, who have been in that space and are yelling across the room to people that they’ve come with to come and see something. It’s genuine excitement, and these are books and cases—that’s what we’re sharing—in a setting that allows people to see them in a state that you really won’t see anywhere else.

If you had a visiting relative from out of town and you had just a short time, what would be your favorite items you’d want to show them? I know you’ve gotten it down to 52, but—

I was going to say that was going to be my answer: Well, I’d be very happy and excited to share these 52 items with you. I think that’s probably still the starting point of my answer.

There are a couple of pieces that capture a moment.

One is the advanced text of the Martin Luther King Jr. “I Have a Dream” speech—which does not include the “I have a dream” section. That is a story that is not unknown these days. But seeing this sort of very formal press release version of this speech that was so inspiring and historic really captures a moment, I think, for the literarily inclined.

Some of the traces of authors are just breathtaking. I think of the Tolkien galley proofs. If anybody has even a passing interest in Tolkien and 20th-century literature, seeing the state of those novels before they go to their final published form with Tolkien’s corrections—the one that gets everybody is The Fellowship of the Ring.

We’ve opened it to the prologue poem, which has become iconic since the release of the films. It’s how the films open up, and there’s only one correction on that page. It’s Tolkien crossing out “shadows” and replacing it with “darkness.” But it’s become such a well-known passage that people who have any knowledge or awareness of that—seeing that in Tolkien’s hand, you’re not going to see that anywhere else. So I would definitely direct people to that sort of thing.

One of the things Stuart Rose’s collection has are connections with historical figures. So there is a copy of Galileo’s Dialogo, which is inscribed in Galileo’s hand on the title page. This man, the living, breathing individual, held that object and wrote on that page. In our field we call this “aura.” It’s like you have the aura of the individual and you can’t beat that.

I wanted to ask a little more about the feeling of the exhibition.

One thing that we haven’t discussed is the wallpaper on the walls. It’s a very high ceiling in there. So the solution, which won’t be the same every time, was this wallpaper treatment, which really extends the feeling of the room to the full extent of the room, in a way that is really warm, I think, and captivating. So I think immediately upon entering the room, it puts you into a place, it puts you into a feeling because it’s engaging, it’s a little mysterious.

Looking ahead, what kinds of special collections do you think might appear here, so that visitors could look forward to those as well?

The next exhibition is entitled Power Players, which is about how to be a mover and a shaker in Shakespeare’s England. And it is going to hit very much on some of our core strengths in the collection, which is the life and times of William Shakespeare, that Tudor Stuart world. We’re going to be seeing some amazing things from the Folger collection in that space for that period of time. So between this exhibition and that exhibition, I think you have two examples of very different ways of using that space, both of which will be distinct and memorable experiences.

And if you imagine someone who enjoys going to the Folger and what they will see in the five to ten years ahead, it sounds like it will be quite varied.

It’s going to be varied! And as we look ahead into the future, the sky’s the limit. We’re talking about one specific portion of that exhibition hall. There will be times in the future where we may have a temporary exhibition that takes over that entire exhibition hall and is expansive in scope and has media and interactives. What you see right now is what we’re opening with, but that’s the beginning, that’s not the end. My message is, Stay tuned and keep your eye on us.