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.
Our building is reopening November 17, 2023!
Plan your visit
Be the first to explore our new exhibition galleries, learning labs, cafe, and expanded gardens after a three-year building renovation. Check out our list of five must dos, take a drone tour of our historic spaces, and see what’s on stage.
What’s on
Join us for in-person and virtual events.
How to Teach ANY Play or Novel Fast & With Rigor
Folger Consort with Kaleidoscope Vocal Ensemble: Virtual Concert
On Demand: Eudora Welty Lecture with Elizabeth Strout
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
FAST FACTS about our FAST ACCS (early modern manuscript edition)
Curator of Manuscript, Heather Wolfe, shows off some of the recent manuscript acquisitions.
Excerpt: "King Lear: Shakespeare's Dark Consolations"
“King Lear is about insiders who with terrible suddenness are shoved outside, and what they learn or don’t learn from finding themselves positioned there,” writes Arthur Frank.
Greg Doran on Forty Years of Directing Shakespeare
The former Royal Shakespeare Company Artistic Director talks about First Folios, a disastrous performance of Romeo and Juliet, and his partnership with the late Antony Sher.
Birds of Shakespeare: The grey heron
Hamlet uses the heron, or “handsaw,” to reference his power struggle with his uncle, Claudius.
A Game at Chess: Popularity and Controversy
Dumbarton Oaks fellow, Abner Aldarondo, discusses Thomas Middleton’s popular, but controversial play, A Game at Chess.
Excerpt: "Shakespeare and University Drama in Early Modern England" by Daniel Blank
Daniel Blank writes about Shakespeare’s presence within the early modern university sphere.
What's onstage at Shakespeare theaters this summer
Plan a visit to a theater near you with our guide to summer Shakespeare across the United States.
In Search of Nature’s Not-So-Lost Treasures: Juan Eusebio Nieremberg on Ecology
Folger Fellow Javier Patiño Loira explores early modern concerns about nature and extinction.
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.