Early modern life
![Women's Petition Against Coffee Pamphlet against coffee](https://images.folger.edu/uploads/2019/10/womens-petition-against-coffee.jpg?fit=10%2C10)
Not Shakespeare’s cup of tea: Consuming caffeine in early modern England
In Shakespeare’s plays, we find scenes that take place in taverns and alehouses – but no coffee shops – and characters who drink ale and wine – but not what we now think of as the quintessential English beverage: tea.…
Early modern straws; or, quills are not just for writing
This post is brought to you by John Ward, who observed in the 1660s that a good way to “avoid drinking too much Beer” is to “suck itt in with a quill.” John Ward’s sage advice, given him by Dr.…
![Hornbook Hornbook](https://images.folger.edu/uploads/2019/09/003304.jpg?fit=10%2C10)
Elizabethan education and Ben Jonson's school days
See education in Shakespeare’s day through the eyes of Ben Jonson: learning ABCs and the Lord’s Prayer with hornbooks, and drilling Latin grammar endlessly.
![Mushrooms in a Czech herbal Illustration of mushrooms in a Czech herbal](https://images.folger.edu/uploads/2019/08/czech-herbal-mushrooms.jpg?fit=10%2C10)
"Excrements of the earth": Mushrooms in early modern England
Attitudes towards mushrooms in Shakespeare’s England reveal deeply held cultural anxieties about groups perceived as threats to the social fabric.
![Fritter on a plate Fritter on a plate](https://images.folger.edu/uploads/2019/06/fritters-finished.jpg?fit=10%2C10)
Savoring the seasons and Lettice Pudsey’s fritters
Food is intimately connected to climate and season. It was for Shakespeare and his contemporaries, and it is for us today. Beautiful, local produce is once again available in the northeast now that spring is turning into early summer. In…
![3. wolley wisdom](https://images.folger.edu/uploads/2019/05/3.-wolley-wisdom.jpg?fit=10%2C10)
A Wild and Woolley Week
A guest post by the Before ‘Farm to Table’ team This week the Before ‘Farm to Table’: Early Modern Foodways and Cultures team turned their collective attention to Hannah Woolley (or Wolley), a British woman writer who was among the…
![Portraits of Queen Elizabeth I and Empress Xiaozhuang Portraits of Queen Elizabeth I and Empress Xiaozhuang](https://images.folger.edu/uploads/2019/05/elizabeth-xiaozhuang-portraits-fb.jpg?fit=10%2C10)
Elizabeth I and the Qing Empress Xiaozhuang
Like Elizabeth, Xiaozhuang was a woman with intellectual and political interests, attaining the powerful position of Empress Dowager in Qing China.
![Woodblock print illustrating the proper set up of a kitchen Woodblock print illustrating the proper set up of a kitchen](https://images.folger.edu/uploads/2019/04/013271-kitchen.jpg?fit=10%2C10)
Tastes of the Mediterranean: Italian food before Italy
Italian regions share a culinary history that is rooted in the ingredients, tastes, and techniques that came out of early-modern innovations, explorations, and cultural movements.
![002217 A Guide to Ladies by Hannah Woolley](https://images.folger.edu/uploads/2019/03/002217-sm.jpg?fit=10%2C10)
A Guide to Ladies: Hannah Woolley's missing book emerges from the archives
One of Hannah Woolley’s books has sat hidden in plain sight at the Folger since 1990—included in the Folger online catalog, but missing from an international database that scholars often use to search for early English books. It is the…
![Taffety tarts Taffety tarts](https://images.folger.edu/uploads/2019/03/taffety-tarts-boermans-closed.jpg?fit=10%2C10)
Taffety Tarts: How Folger manuscript recipes helped a 17th-century pastry make it into the Oxford English Dictionary
Food historian and The Great British Baking Show winner Mary-Anne Boermans writes about piecing together 17th-century manuscript recipes for Taffety Tarts.
![seed cake seed cake](https://images.folger.edu/uploads/2019/03/seed-cake-222-crTWood.jpg?fit=10%2C10)
Seed cake inspired by Thomas Tusser
See a 17th-century recipe for seed cake inspired by the farmer poet Thomas Tusser. Ingredients include rosewater, caraway seeds, and sherry.
![marmalade marmalade](https://images.folger.edu/uploads/2019/02/TWood-marmalade-085.jpg?fit=10%2C10)
Citrus and sugar: Making marmalade with Hannah Woolley
Hannah Woolley’s 17-century recipe for marmalade captures the flavors of exotic citrus with the preservative power of sugar, which had only recently been made widely available to upper- and middle-class British people.