Folger Finds
Collection Connections: ‘The Shakespeare Requirement’
Dr. Emma Poltrack shares the Folger collection items she presented on September 3, 2020 as an introduction to ‘The Shakespeare Requirement’ by Julie Schumacher.
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…
Collection Connections: ‘Station Eleven’
Dr. Emma Poltrack shares the items she presented to the Folger virtual book club on August 6, 2020 as an introduction to ‘Station Eleven’ by Emily St. John Mandel.
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 sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries. What kind of books were they reading? What sort of notes did they write in them? What can we learn about their…
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.…
Six miniature Shakespeare books to delight and intrigue you
Have you seen some of the smallest books in the Folger Shakespeare Library collection? We’ve been sharing miniature Folger Finds on Instagram throughout the year as these books joined a rotating display of items from the James L. Harner Collection of…
Fat rogue, pampered glutton: Two Falstaffian context clues
Early versions of Shakespeare’s Henry IV Part 1 show its immense popularity and point to Falstaff’s origins as the real-life figure Sir John Oldcastle.