Folger Collections
I have sent you a Privy Seal...
The answer to last week’s crocodile mystery? As Jan Kellett correctly pointed out in her comment to the October Crocodile Mystery, the red-orange concentric circles in this image are an “offset mark made by a seal.” The mark was made…
Faire Europe: Ortelius, Mercator, and the continents
Maps, today, are ubiquitous. We have them in our phones, on our public transit, on walls and signs everywhere you turn. Many people learn to read and interpret them from an early age. Conventions that we don’t even know are…
It's the Little Things: Lace Details in Sense & Sensibility
In this post, designer Mariah Hale explains where she found the lace for the beautiful costumes in Sense & Sensibility. Some of the details on the dresses are so small they are almost invisible from the audience, so we’re giving you a close-up look! Check out Mariah’s post…
The Many Neckties of Sense & Sensibility
In this post, designer Mariah Hale takes us a deep dive into the Regency neckware featured in Sense & Sensibility. Check out her costume sketches for more backstage insights, and read on to learn how Mariah uses different styles of neckties to help define the colorful characters…
A Recipe’s Place is in the Classroom
The Folger Shakespeare Library is many things: an internationally-renowned research library, a museum, a performance space, a center for innovative digital initiatives, and home to some of the best air conditioning on Capitol Hill (not something to be overlooked during…
"To benefit the suffering Belgians"
As several readers quickly guessed, last week’s crocodile image was a photograph of a Russian edition of Shakespeare’s sonnets. The “ghost” type in the image is due to a glassine (translucent paper) jacket around the volume, which obscures the printed…
Uncut, unopened, untrimmed, uh-oh
Do you despair when when you hear “decimate” used to describe a reduction of more than ten percent? Does seeing the caption “Big Ben” on a souvenir postcard showing a London clock tower rather than the largest bell within it make you cringe? If so, heed this warning: never use the phrase…
Sense & Sensibility Costume Sketches
Sense & Sensibility costume designer Mariah Hale has previously designed productions of Julius Caesar, Mary Stuart, and more at the Folger. Visit these links to explore her design process for those performances, and check out her costume sketches for Sense & Sensibility below! The Ladies Gentlemen
Honing transcriptions with algorithms and acumen
A question I often hear from paleographers who contribute transcriptions to Early Modern Manuscripts Online (or EMMO) is: What are you going to do with all these transcriptions? It’s a good question—central to the whole project, actually—but it’s also a complicated one. The…
Don Quixote on an Early Paper Cover
The Folger Shakespeare Library recently acquired a copybook with an intriguing pictorial paper cover, and it is, of course, the subject of the crocodile mystery we posted last week. This cover is made of thick paper (thicker than regular paper…
Shakespeare the player: a new discovery sheds light on two Folger manuscripts
The reference to a coat of arms belonging to “Shakespeare the Player by Garter” in a manuscript at the Folger, V.a.350, has garnered much attention over the years. Folger MS V.a.350 is currently on loan to the British Library for their exhibition Shakespeare…
The Earliest Recorded Shakespeare in America?
We know that a number of the founding fathers (and mothers) in 18th-century America knew their Shakespeare. John and Abigail Adams frequently quoted from Shakespeare in their letters; Thomas Jefferson recommended reading Shakespeare in a course of private study; and…