Shakespeare and the American Story
Unique insights into American history with a Shakespearean focus
On view 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
Plan your visit
Get details and reserve timed-entry passes.
Take a tour
Reserve a group tour or student experience.
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 theater, poetry, talks, and other programs.
Printing Press Demonstrations
Out of the Vault
Family Workshop: Family Poetry Slam
Imagining Shakespeare: Mythmaking and Storytelling in the Regency Era
Shakespeare and the American Story
Folger Book Club: 'The Fraud' by Zadie Smith
Poetry Kickoff with María Fernanda
The latest from our blogs and podcast
Quiz: Shakespeare and the sea
Shakespeare constantly evokes the sea in his plays. Try our quiz about how sea breezes, storms, and saltwater make their way through his works.
230+ Years of Holding It Together
An introduction to the so‑called ‘temporary’ boards bindings that are still on our copy of the first American edition of Shakespeare.
Shakespeare’s role in America in the next 250 years
For the Declaration of Independence’s 250th anniversary, we asked Shakespeare scholars what part Shakespeare may play in America’s next three centuries. Folger Director Dr. Farah Karim-Cooper writes that Shakespeare and what we do with him is more essential than ever if democracy is to thrive.
Shakespeare's Margaret, with Charles O'Malley and Scott W. Stern
She appears in four of Shakespeare’s plays and speaks the most lines of any of his female characters. Authors Charles O’Malley and Scott W. Stern shine the spotlight on Margaret of Anjou, Shakespeare’s most deliciously complex anti-heroine.
Much Ado’s Dogberry and Verges ride again
60 years after the premiere of Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, a new stage comedy is using Stoppard’s absurdist template to explore the fears and struggles of the two main clowns from Much Ado About Nothing.
Hamnet's trees
Scholar Jean E. Feerick looks at how Hamnet takes us back to a premodern world when people knew how deeply nature pervades us. Inspired by Shakespeare’s own eco-sensibility, Zhao’s film invites us to consider anew our place in the world.
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.