![A Folger staff member showing a collection item A Folger staff member showing a collection item](https://images.folger.edu/uploads/2022/10/ym_folger_members_031018-0003-2.jpg?resize=1600%2C800&gravity)
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.
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.
Related blog posts
Explore some of the scholarly work being done with, in, and around our collections.
![Folger-STC-S334-Counter-Face-2-copy-aspect-ratio-1248-1141 A small face with a beard within a large red letter O](https://images.folger.edu/uploads/2024/08/Folger-STC-S334-Counter-Face-2-copy-aspect-ratio-1248-1141.jpg?resize=16%2C10&gravity)
Folger Deep Dives: Memory, marginalia, and the art of reading, V.b.32 and beyond
Folger fellow Amy Cooper explores the relationship between memory and the doodles of faces, dragons, and people in the margins of books.
![FF-Tour-2016-California-IMG_3051-cr-Stacy-Keck listing Two children look at an open First Folio enclosed in a clear case.](https://images.folger.edu/uploads/2025/10/FF-Tour-2016-California-IMG_3051-cr-Stacy-Keck-listing.jpeg?resize=16%2C10&gravity)
Announced in 1622: A Book Now Known as the First Folio
Greg Prickman explains how news of the 1623 book we now call the First Folio appeared a year earlier, on the occasion of a trade fair in Frankfurt, Germany.
![003315-listing](https://images.folger.edu/uploads/2025/10/003315-listing.jpeg?resize=16%2C10&gravity)
Quiz: Games, sports, and Shakespeare
Shakespeare’s plays are full of sports and games. Test your knowledge with these questions.
![036308-Small_1500px](https://images.folger.edu/uploads/2024/08/036308-Small_1500px.jpg?resize=16%2C10&gravity)
Macbeth and the Roots of Birnam Wood
Todd Andrew Borlik revisits his August 2024 presentation on Eleanor Catton’s Birnam Wood.