Welcome to the Folger
Enjoy great stories | Explore what makes you curious | Share the best in art, history, and literature with friends and family at the world’s largest Shakespeare collection.
Folger Theatre: Reopening in November
The rest of our building: Reopening in 2024
Plan your visit for this fall
Folger Theatre returns to its historic home on Capitol Hill. Here’s what to expect when you come to see a performance of The Winter’s Tale.
What a visit will be like in 2024
Be the first to explore our new exhibition galleries, learning lab, café, and expanded gardens after a major building renovation.
What’s on
Join us for in-person and virtual events.
The Winter's Tale
Early Music Seminar: A Baroque Christmas Story
Winter Tales: Paired Texts to Fire Up Your Students
Single tickets now on sale
Folger Theatre
It’s our homecoming season. Get your tickets for The Winter’s Tale, Where We Belong, and Metamorphoses.
Poetry
Hear from Evie Shockley, Linda Gregerson, Edward Hirsch, and other poets in this season’s series of readings and workshops.
Music
Join us for the Folger Consort season, beginning with our holiday concerts at St. Mark’s Church on Capitol Hill.
About us
How did the world’s largest Shakespeare collection end up one block from the US Capitol? Explore the Folger’s origin story.
The latest from our blogs and podcast
'The Weird Sisters' Resource Guide
Resources related to early modern family dynamics in preparation for our December book club discussion of The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown.
The Woodstreet Cake: A spiced holiday cake with a spicy history
Follow this adapted recipe from a 17th-century manuscript in the Folger collection to make Woodstreet Cake, named for a London lane reputed for good cakes and good times at its popular taverns.
Will Somer: Peter Andersson on Henry VIII's Court Fool
Peter K. Andersson’s new biography profiles a famous fool.
Race B4 Race Seminar 3: What We’re Reading and Why
In the third post of the series, a member of the Race Before Race Mentorship Network discuss what they’re reading and thinking about in their monthly Reading Group.
About 'The Weird Sisters'
Introductory information on the December 2023 Folger Book Club selection, a family story threaded with Shakespearean references.
Acquiring the Vincent First Folio: A Bibliophilic Drama in Two Parts (Part 2)
Part 2 of the thrilling story about how Henry Folger acquired the Vincent-Sibthrop copy of the First Folio.
Our collection
The First Folio
The Folger has the world’s largest collection of First Folios. Learn more about the book that gave us Shakespeare.
A majestic portrait
The Folger collection includes about 200 paintings. This portrait of Queen Elizabeth I by George Gower is dated 1579 making it the oldest painting in our collection. Two years after he completed this portrait, Gower became Serjeant Painter to the Queen, making him the most important artist in England.
Our other Elizabeth I holdings include hand-signed letters, books, and even New Year’s gift rolls detailing her holiday gifts. It is the largest collection of Elizabeth I materials in North America.
Shakespeare’s works
View the full list of plays and poems to read, search, and download our bestselling editions of Shakespeare’s works.
Shakespeare’s most popular plays
Romeo and Juliet
Macbeth
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Julius Caesar
Othello
Hamlet
Explore
What was Shakespeare's theater like?
Learn about the Globe and other London playhouses where Shakespeare’s company performed. What was it like to be an actor there, or an audience member?
Teach
How can Shakespeare help 21st-century students be stronger readers?
Our Folger Method is revolutionizing how not just Shakespeare but all literature is taught using strategies that allow all students to own – and enjoy – complex texts.
Research
If we are what we eat, what can recipes from the past tell us?
Projects like Before ‘Farm to Table’ unite scholars and practitioners in investigations into the past to shed light on what matters to us today.
Support the things you love
Your gifts make access to our collection, learning opportunities, and exciting experiences happen.