The Folger Shakespeare Library offers a full range of reference resources to scholars conducting research at the Folger. In addition to a large collection of modern scholarly and reference books, these include substantial microfilm collections and access to subscription databases from within the library.
Microfilm collections of manuscripts include the Cecil papers from Hatfield House; papers from the Guildford Muniment Room and Loseley Park; manuscripts from the Tanner and Rawlinson collections at the Bodleian Library and from the Harleian and Lansdowne collections at the British Library; the domestic state papers of Edward VI, Henry VIII, Mary, Elizabeth I, James I and Charles I; the unpublished state papers of the English Civil War and Interregnum; state papers related to Ireland (1509–1714); the papers of Sir Henry Irving and Ellen Terry from the Shakespeare Centre Library, Stratford-upon-Avon; and the promptbooks at the Shakespeare Library in Birmingham, the Shakespeare Library at Stratford-upon-Avon, and the Harvard Theatre Collection.
The Folger also has a complete set of microfilms of all STC and Wing volumes and holds microfilm collections of other early printed works.
Among the scholarly databases available to Folger readers are the Library's own public-access catalog Hamnet and several subscription online resources. The latter include the English Short Title Catalogue (ESTC), Early English Books Online (EEBO), the Dictionary of National Biography, the Oxford English Dictionary, Historical Abstracts, the Modern Language Association (MLA) Bibliography, Bibliography of the History of Art, and the World Shakespeare Bibliography. Past issues of Shakespeare Quarterly are accessible online (as well as in print) from within the library.
Georgianna Ziegler is the Louis B. Thalheimer Head of Reference at the Folger. She can be reached for any reference questions concerning the collections at reference@folger.edu.
