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.
Take a tour
Reserve a group tour or student experience.
Check out our shop
Gifts, games, merch, and more!
Eat at Quill & Crumb
Enjoy lunch or a quick snack at our new café.
What’s on
Join us for in-person and virtual events: theater, poetry, music, and more.
How to Be a Power Player: Tudor Edition
Cocktails and Conversation: "A Springtime Revival" with Douglas Clark
Foraged Mixology
Twelfth Night
Folger Salon with Mark Bland, Zainab Cheema, and Kate Doubler
Creative Conversations: Twelfth Night
DC, I Love You: First Dates
Queer Dramaturgy with Alexa Alice Joubin
Folger Book Club: 'Queen B' by Juno Dawson
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 secrets of the conclave
What were papal conclaves like in Shakespeare’s time? Scholar John M. Hunt shares what’s changed from the early modern period and what remains the same.
Deep Dive into Gorakh Dhanda or what Partington thought of Indian Shakespeare in 1913
Fellow Anandi Rao takes a close look at a copy of an Urdu translation of The Comedy of Errors.
Collection Connections: Specters of Hamlet and AI as RenAIssance Technology
We revisit Alexa Alice Joubin’s May 2025 presentation as part of our Folger Book Club discussion of Em Liu’s The Death I Gave Him.
Top Pop Songs of the 1600s
Researchers Angela McShane and Christopher Marsh explore the most popular songs of 17th-century England through the 100 Ballads project. Featuring new recordings and insights into ballad broadsheets, the episode reveals the music, stories, and values that shaped the soundtrack of Shakespeare’s world.
Quiz: Shakespeare and twins
Twins, sometimes separated or confused for one another, appear more than once in Shakespeare’s plays. Test your knowledge with our quiz on the subject.
Q&A with Twelfth Night director Mei Ann Teo
Director Mei Ann Teo shares the vision for Folger Theatre’s production of Twelfth Night. Shakespearean original practice, the soulful pop of local icon composer Be Steadwell, and an ensemble proposition all inform a production that Teo describes as “hilarious, sexy, and devastating.”
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.