The Folger’s collection is vast and varied, including printed books; manuscripts; prints, drawings, photographs, paintings, and other works of art; and a wealth of performance history, from playbills to films, recordings, and stage costumes.
In addition to the rare material collection, the Folger holds a collection of over 100,000 monographs, periodicals, and electronic resources published between the 1830s and the present, related to the understanding and interpretation of Shakespeare, his works and impact, and to the early modern world.
Printed Books
Manuscripts
Works of Art
Performance History
History of the collection
Henry Clay Folger and his wife, Emily Jordan Folger, began amassing the collection of rare books that would become the Folger Shakespeare Library in 1889. They spent decades gathering the world’s largest Shakespeare collection, as well as associated works from Shakespeare’s time. The Library itself opened in 1932, and continues to expand its holdings today.
Caring for our collections
Related blog posts
Explore some of the scholarly work being done with, in, and around our collections.
Collection Connections: 'You Dreamed of Empires'
We revisit Victoria M. Muñoz’s November 2025 presentation as part of our Folger Book Club discussion of Álvaro Enrigue’s You Dreamed of Empires.
Working Through the Tangle: Language, Archives, and Practice
What does the language of Shakespeare have in common with the Gullah-Geechee language?
Miscellaneous Race
Looking at enslaved Black workers and the 1588 Spanish Armada’s afterlives in a 17th-century English miscellany
Collection Connections: 'A Haunting on the Hill'
We revisit Johnna Champion’s October 2025 presentation as part of our Folger Book Club discussion of Elizabeth Hand’s A Haunting on the Hill.
Artist Elise Ansel Reimagines Macbeth
Ansel shares how her questions as an artist fellow about Fuseli’s take on Shakespeare’s Macbeth inspired her to create two abstract, large-scale oil paintings but this time from a woman’s perspective that celebrates the play’s sisterhood.