Folger Collections

Herbarius: A New Herbal for the Anthropocene, by 2024-25 artist research fellow Suzette Marie Martin, is a “deconstructed manuscript” series of paintings that traces the intercontinental dispersal of non-native plant species through formerly valued medicinal herbs, now despised as weeds.

In which a 16th century monk flips Erika off, and we all pick out our next tattoos

Fellow Layla Zeitouni explains how the Term “Major” Allowed the Gutenberg Bible to Supersede the Donatus

Identifying handwritten corrections by the author Thomas Nashe in his own work, Almond for a Parrat

We revisit Beth DeBold’s June 2025 presentation as part of our Folger Book Club discussion of Juno Dawson’s Queen B.

Our assistant curator highlights a new acquisition and other material in our collection related to Twelfth Night

A participant in the undergraduate seminar, Whose Sovereignty?, experiences the materiality of the 1583 edition of John Foxe’s Actes and Monuments

Fellow Anandi Rao takes a close look at a copy of an Urdu translation of The Comedy of Errors.

We revisit Alexa Alice Joubin’s May 2025 presentation as part of our Folger Book Club discussion of Em Liu’s The Death I Gave Him.

One of 18th-century Britain’s most prolific narrative painters, Henry Fuseli found inspiration in Shakespeare, with his painting of Macbeth and the witches one of his “best poetical conceptions.”

Fellow Sara Pennell hunts down the former owner of one the Folger’s many recipe books.

Fellow Alex Baines looks at the drawings of C. Walter Hodges and how they continue to impact how we imagine the Globe Theatre