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.
What is...Secularity?
The O. B. Hardison Season Opening Reading: Jorie Graham
Folger Book Club: Warm Bodies
Folger Theatre
Join us for The Winter’s Tale, Where We Belong, and Metamorphoses! Single tickets now on sale.
Poetry
Hear from Evie Shockley, Linda Gregerson, Edward Hirsch, and other poets in this season’s series of readings and workshops. Single tickets now on sale.
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
George Saunders in happier times
The tale of George Saunders and his hopes for a wife.
Michael Patrick Thornton on Learning to Breathe Again with Shakespeare
Michael Patrick Thornton joins us on the podcast to talk about how speaking Shakespeare helped him recover from a spinal stroke and navigating the theater world as a disabled actor.
About 'Warm Bodies'
Introductory information on the October 2023 Folger Book Club selection, a Romeo and Juliet adaptation set in the zombie apocalypse.
'The Personal Librarian,' the Morgan, and the Folger (Part 2)
The second part of our September 2023 conversation with Erica Ciallela and Sara Schliep as part of our discussion of The Personal Librarian.
Everyday Shakespeare: Creating a calendar of Shakespeare quotes
Ben and David Crystal share the story behind how they created their new collection of Shakespeare quotes for each day of the year.
Engraving the Courtesan: Sex Work and “The Renaissance” in Victorian Books
When is a Hollar not a Hollar? When his name is being used in 19th century depictions of early modern women. Folger Fellow Alicia Meyer looks at sexualization, economic power, and the manipulation of the past.
Exit, Pursued by a Polar? Bear
A brief look at Shakespeare’s most famous stage direction.
Visualizing Race Virtually: Exploring the art of Shakespeare
David Sterling Brown writes about the images and ideas presented in his virtual-reality exhibition, which features art from the Folger collection.
Birds of Shakespeare: The snipe
In Othello Iago refers to Roderigo as a snipe to indicate that he only spends time with him in order to take advantage of him.
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.