Folger Shakespeare Library

• 1. Founding And Establishment

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  Henry Clay Folger began collecting Shakespeareana in 1889 with a single purchase of a 1685 Fourth Folio. He and his wife Emily Jordan Folger searched for a location near the Library of Congress during World War I. They bought separate lots occupied by townhouses to create their own site on Capitol Hill. Congress passed a resolution in 1928 allowing them to use land previously designated for expansion by the Library of Congress. The cornerstone was laid in May 1930, but Henry died shortly after that event. His estate was smaller than planned due to the stock market crash of 1929. Emily supplied the funds needed to complete the project. The library opened on the 23rd of April 1932, which is believed to be Shakespeare's birth date. Early board members included Calvin Coolidge, who served as second chairman of trustees.

• 2. Architectural Design And Expansion

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  Paul Philippe Cret designed the main building with a white marble exterior featuring nine carved reliefs from Shakespeare plays. Sculptor John Gregory created these reliefs depicting scenes like A Midsummer Night's Dream and Hamlet. An aluminum cast of Puck by Brenda Putnam stands outside the entrance. Inside, oak paneling and plaster ceilings give the space a Tudor style feel. The Elizabethan Theatre lobby contains a restored marble statue of Puck moved indoors in 2001. Muralist Austin M. Purves Jr painted architectural details inside the theater area. In 1959, Harbeson Hough Livingston Larson added a new wing over a rear parking lot. This addition included a roof garden above the new structure. The Haskell Center opened in 2000 across Third Street to house education staff. Andrew K. Stevenson adapted an existing nineteenth-century office building for this purpose. The Folger maintains townhouses on Third Street to provide housing for visiting scholars and fellows.

• 3. Rare Collections And Holdings

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  The library holds 82 copies of the 1623 First Folio out of only 235 known surviving examples worldwide. Over 200 quartos of individual Shakespeare plays make up another major part of the collection. More than 7,000 later editions exist spanning from the 18th century to today in over 70 languages. The facility owns 250,000 playbills and 2,000 promptbooks related to performance history. Upwards of 90,000 paintings prints drawings photographs sculptures form the art holdings. Edwin Willoughby began cataloging books in 1935 using Alfred W Pollard's Short-Title Catalogue system. By 1948 the library adopted the Library of Congress classification method instead. An online catalog called Hamnet became available to the public in 2000 after being accessible to staff since 1996. Notable items include the only complete copy of Titus Andronicus first quarto published in 1594. The Dering Manuscript represents the earliest known manuscript version of any Shakespeare work. Henry VIII owned a childhood copy of Cicero's De officiis with his own inscription reading Thys boke is myne Prynce Henry.

• 4. Scholarly Research Programs

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  The Folger Institute has served as the focus of scholarly research since 1970 under director O.B. Hardison. Long-term and short-term fellowships support advanced researchers across all disciplines every year. The Amherst-Folger Undergraduate Fellowship program runs for two weeks each January. Scholarly programs include the Folger Institute Consortium sharing resources among over 40 universities. The Center for Shakespeare Studies seeks depth and diversity within academic scholarship. The Center for the History of British Political Thought promotes three hundred years of political history studies. Early members included Calvin Coolidge who later became president. B Roland Lewis was the first official reader and published The Shakespeare Documents based on his research. First fellowships were distributed starting in 1936. Current practices for exhibitions did not begin until 1964 when the first curated show opened on site. During World War II, thirty thousand items traveled under guard to Amherst College Converse Library for safekeeping.

• 5. Educational Outreach Initiatives

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  Educational outreach began in the early 1970s with programs designed for K-12 teachers and students. Teachers gather at the library for day-long or month-long workshops incorporating performance into classroom teaching. Student programs include local residency initiatives and a high school fellowship program studying Shakespeare directly at the facility. The Emily Jordan Folger Children's Shakespeare Festival allows elementary students to perform every spring since 1980. The Secondary School Shakespeare Festival brings grades seven through twelve to perform half-hour collections in the theater. The Teaching Shakespeare Institute started as an intensive four-week summer study program in 1984. Fifty teachers participated in that inaugural year but annual numbers are now capped at twenty-five. By 2015 over seven hundred seventy-five teachers had completed the TSI program. Funding comes from the National Endowment for the Humanities supporting these educational efforts. The department publishes various materials specifically designed for classroom use today.

• 6. Performing Arts Ensembles

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  Folger Theatre performs seasons of Shakespeare-inspired theater featuring works by Shakespeare plus contemporary plays inspired by him. Since 1992 the company has staged over half of all plays found in Shakespeare's First Folio. Productions have received one hundred thirty-five nominations for Helen Hayes Awards winning twenty-three including Outstanding Resident Play. Janet Alexander Griffin served as Artistic Producer from 1982 until 2021 when Karen Ann Daniels took over programming duties. Performances occur inside the historic Elizabethan Theatre located at the east end of the building. Folger Consort was founded in 1977 by artistic directors Robert Eisenstein and Christopher Kendall. This early music ensemble performs medieval Renaissance and baroque music regularly at venues like Washington National Cathedral. Since 2006 the group won Best Classical Chamber Ensemble five times at Washington Area Music Awards. The O.B. Hardison Poetry Series began hosting readings in 1970 with poets like Octavio Paz and Allen Ginsberg. Between 1991 and 2009 the series awarded the O.B. Hardison Jr. Poetry Prize to U.S. poets meeting specific criteria.

• 7. Digital Preservation Efforts

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  The Digital Image Collection known as LUNA provides over eighty thousand images of manuscripts books and art under Creative Commons license. Folgerpedia serves as an in-house wiki collaboratively edited about the institution collection and related topics. All Shakespeare's works appear online as digital editions available freely to researchers worldwide. Early Modern Manuscripts Online digitizes English manuscripts from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries for public access. EMMO holds conferences paleography classes transcrib-athons and other events promoting transcription work. These tools assist global scholars in accessing materials previously restricted to physical visits only. The library reopened on the 21st of June 2024 after major renovations closed it to daytime visitors since January 2020. New features include a learning lab outdoor gardens featuring a Juliet balcony and reimagined great hall cafe called Quill Crumb. Michael Witmore became director on the 1st of July 2011 focusing on digital analysis of texts before stepping down in 2024. Dr Farah Karim Cooper took office later that same year continuing leadership efforts.