Shakespeare and the American Story
On view in our exhibition galleries through August 2
Welcome to the Folger!
Choose how you want to experience Shakespeare, the humanities, and our world-renowned collection.
Visit Shakespeare’s home in America
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Get details and reserve timed-entry passes.
Take a tour
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Eat at Quill & Crumb
Enjoy lunch or a quick snack at our café.
About us
The Folger Shakespeare Library showcases the utility of Shakespeare and the humanities in cultivating healthy civic life.
What’s on
Join us for talks, poetry, music, and other programs.
Shakespeare and the American Story
Imagining Shakespeare: Mythmaking and Storytelling in the Regency Era
Shakespeare's Globe Richard II
Our Shakespeare Exhibition
As You Like It: Finding Joy, Freedom, and Voice
Folger Gala
Staged Reading: Macbeth
Adjoa Andoh
Director’s Residency: April 19-25
Adjoa Andoh MBE is most well-known among American audiences for her role as Lady Danbury in the Netflix show Bridgerton, but she is also a highly regarded Shakespearean actor and director. Learn more about the public events happening during her Director’s Residency at the Folger.
The latest from our blogs and podcast
The Translator's Art and Shakespeare, with Daniel Hahn
Folger Members can preview this episode now! Is Shakespeare still Shakespeare even if every word is changed? Author and translator Daniel Hahn dives into the challenges and rewards of translating Shakespeare—exploring not only what is lost in translation, but also what is gained.
Q&A: Patrick Stewart on performing Shakespeare's sonnets
The acclaimed actor talks about the essential message of love he discovered at the heart of each sonnet while recording all 154 for a new audiobook. He also shares recordings of three of the sonnets, including his favorite one.
Interview and excerpt: Amrita Sen and Jennifer Linhart Wood on 'Early Modern Performance Beyond the Public Stage'
Read an excerpt of Early Modern Performance Beyond the Public Stage and an interview with co-editors Amrita Sen and Jennifer Linhart Wood.
Famous quotes from Macbeth
Shakespeare’s shortest tragedy, Macbeth, tells a story of ambition, violent murder, and its crippling psychological aftereffects, all foretold by a trio of witches. Explore some of the play’s most well-known lines, in order of their appearance.
The one (fem.)
Artistic Research Fellow Billy Morgan shares and contextualizes an excerpt of a fiction piece shaped by their work at the Folger.
Five things we know | Shakespeare's Life
What do we know about Shakespeare’s life? As Shakespeare Documented shows, we know quite a bit about him as a playwright, businessman, and family man through primary sources from his lifetime and shortly thereafter.
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.
Folger Shop
Find unique gifts inspired by Shakespeare and our collection.