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.
The Folger is open! New exhibition galleries, gardens, and shop
Plan your visit
Get details and reserve timed-entry passes.
Explore our exhibitions
See what’s on view in our galleries.
Check out our shop
Gifts, games, merch, and more!
Quill & Crumb
Our new café is now open! The seasonal menu features shareable snack plates, salads, sandwiches, and a variety of coffees, teas, and baked goods.
The Reading Room Festival
At Folger Theatre’s third annual festival, join artists, critics, and scholars to celebrate creative community and collaboratively explore the multifaceted nature of Shakespeare’s stories.
What’s on
Join us for in-person and virtual events: theater, poetry, music, and more.
Little Books, Big Gifts: The Artistry of Esther Inglis
Folger Salon with Shaul Bassi and Sylvia Korman
Author Talk and Reading: "The Girls of Godzilla, Illinois" with Jami Nakamura Lin
Edmond Dédé and Morgiane
Folger Friday: New Year Wellness Celebration
On demand: Not Just Another Day Off
Our Shakespeare Exhibition
Family Workshop: The Fantastical World of Shakespeare
Shakespeare as a Starting Point: Shakespeare with Community
News and announcements
Folger Shakespeare Library Names Dr. Farah Karim-Cooper as Director
Press release: May 20, 2024
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
Sweet Blood: A Play in Progress
Artistic Fellow Camille Thomas shares how research at the Folger helps inform her play, Sweet Blood.
Olivia Hussey: The Girl on the Balcony
Olivia Hussey was just 15 when Franco Zeffirelli cast her in Romeo and Juliet. When the film was released in October 1968, it catapulted Hussey and Leonard Whiting, the young actor playing Romeo, to global stardom. For many Shakespeare lovers, Zeffirelli’s film is still the definitive film adaptation of the play.
A Lost Opera is Found: Edmond Dédé’s Morgiane
After 138 years, Edmond Dédé’s Morgiane—the first known opera by a Black American composer—is receiving its world premiere. Learn about this important American composer and how his magnum opus is being brought to life.
The Old Globe’s Barry Edelstein on Shakespeare and Community
Learn how Edelstein adapted and directed Shakespeare’s rarely produced Henry VI, Parts I, 2, and 3, turning it into a theatrical event with a cast and crew of over a thousand and bringing their community-based work even closer to the center of the organization.
A Collection-Inspired Zine
I made a zine inspired by the Folger Shakespeare Library’s collection (and you can too!).
Folger Finds: New Year's Gift Rolls of Elizabeth I and Henry VIII
In early modern England, New Year’s Day was celebrated with a long-standing custom of giving gifts to the monarch. Each gift was carefully recorded on “gift rolls.” What were the top gifts in 1539 and 1585?
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.