Top 5 Folger Finds of 2020
Revisit the bright spots of 2020 by taking a look at some of our most popular #FolgerFinds posts on Instagram from the past year. Highlights from the Folger collection include a beautiful book binding, a striking costume design, and a…
Early modern sleep care: Recipes for restful sleep
Thomas Sheppey devoted several densely written pages of his 17th-century manuscript to the topic of sleep — how to trigger it, how to interrupt it, how to influence its depth and length, and even how to stop people talking in…
Up Close: A poll book from the 1710 election in London
Voting was not a secret process in early modern England. The poll book shown here published the names of all the voters in London and which candidates and party they voted for in 1710.
Up Close: An 18th-century caricature of the Shakespeare-forging William Henry Ireland and his family
This hand-colored caricature from 1797, “The Oaken Chest or the Gold Mines of Ireland, a Farce,” satirizes William Henry Ireland and his family in their forgery of the “Shakespeare Papers.” The print is full of delightful details that will make…
Up Close: A 1574 map of London
This 1574 hand-colored map of London and its surroundings shows us something of the London in which William Shakespeare lived and worked. Get an up-close look at the map and learn more about it by clicking through the arrows to…
Up Close: The Plimpton “Sieve” portrait of Queen Elizabeth I
Get an up-close look at the painting and learn more about it by clicking through the arrows to see captions that zoom in on different parts of the image. Click the eye icon to hide or display the text.
Up Close: Shakespeare's First Folio
Get an up-close look at the title page of one of the Folger’s 82 First Folios and learn more about it by clicking through captions that zoom in on different parts of the page.
Edward Dering and the earliest record of an amateur private performance of a Shakespeare play
Recently New York Times theater critic Ben Brantley extolled the virtues of reading plays out loud in your living room as a way to while away the COVID-19 time at home. Memories of his own time reading Hamlet as a…
What were women reading? A dive into the Folger vault
Peer with me into the books left behind by women readers in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. What kind of books were they reading? What sort of notes did they write in them? What can we learn about their lives?
The Folger Manuscript Book of Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea
This manuscript book of poems by Anne Finch is part of the Folger Shakespeare Library collection. N.b.3. (Photo: Brittany Diliberto, Bee Two Sweet) The Folger’s outstanding collection is usually associated with Shakespeare and his contemporaries, but scholars who focus on…
Cursing Coriolanus and combating cornhoarders
Coriolanus at the Lyceum / Cyrus C. Cuneo. 1901. Folger ART Box C972 no.1 (size XL)In 1608, famine plagued England. Preachers responded with sermons begging the gentry to show compassion for the poor, King James I responded with royal proclamations…
“The way to save wealth; showing how a man may live plentifully for two-pence a day”: A 17th-century guide to frugal living
A common New Year’s resolution is to save more money, and there are numerous personal-finance books and websites that offer step-by-step plans for spending less, whether out of present necessity or in the hope of reaching a future financial goal.…