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Elizabeth DeBold

is a postgraduate researcher in early modern British social history and culture at Newcastle University in the UK. After a ten-year career in libraries, she now focuses on the human labour of the book and print trades during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Her doctoral project examines the lives and social networks of the apprentices who came to London to learn how to make their living at the press or in the bookshop. She is owned by two cats, John Quincy and Abigail. She was formerly the Assistant Curator at the Folger Shakespeare Library.
Collection Connections: 'The Weird Sisters' by Eleanor Brown
Folger Spotlight

Collection Connections: 'The Weird Sisters' by Eleanor Brown

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Elizabeth DeBold

Elizabeth DeBold revisits her December 2023 presentation on Eleanor Brown’s The Weird Sisters, a family story threaded with Shakespearean references.

My True Meaning: emotions in seventeenth-century wills
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My True Meaning: emotions in seventeenth-century wills

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Elizabeth DeBold

Anyone who has read early modern wills, whether in an attempt to confirm the names of family members or out of interest in material history, knows that they are full of emotion. Dying men and women describe their family members…

The Harmsworth Collection
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The Harmsworth Collection

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Elizabeth DeBold

Book collecting is a passion, or as Nicholas Basbanes famously called it, “a gentle madness,” that affects no few people. Henry and Emily Folger were two such bibliophiles, amassing the largest private collection of Shakespeareana in the world. This collection…

Printed Pamphlets for the Witch of Wapping
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Printed Pamphlets for the Witch of Wapping

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Elizabeth DeBold

During September of last year, while browsing digital resources in the London Metropolitan Archives, a familiar name caught my eye. It was a 1652 indictment from the Middlesex quarter sessions, which tried criminal cases, where a woman named Joan Peterson…

Slurrop! An ode to soup
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Slurrop! An ode to soup

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Elizabeth DeBold

In 1595, English writer William Fiston (or Phiston) produced a translation of a French book of manners for children. Topics included proper behavior that was important for Church and school, but also a section on table manners. Here, Fiston admonishes…

Romeo and...
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Romeo and...

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Elizabeth DeBold

Thanks for our many eagle-eyed readers and your attention to this month’s Crocodile Post. As several folks guessed, this is a French parody of Romeo and Juliet called Roméo et Paquette, published in 1773. This item is a new acquisition, purchased in…

New Acquisition: Photographs of an early 20th-century production of Hamlet in Japan
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New Acquisition: Photographs of an early 20th-century production of Hamlet in Japan

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Elizabeth DeBold

Welcome to a new regular series here on The Collation! Curatorial staff will be writing short pieces focusing on new acquisitions, hopefully giving our readers a glimpse into how we’re building our collections. Today, I’m excited to share a small…

Recipe: A 17th-century potato pie with marrow and dates
potato pie
Shakespeare and Beyond

Recipe: A 17th-century potato pie with marrow and dates

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Author
Elizabeth DeBold

Sweet potato pies, a beloved staple of North American fall and winter cooking, are baked out of mashed or blended sweet potatoes mixed with condensed milk, eggs, and spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, mace, and allspice. Few Americans and…

Fortune’s Fools: early tarot cards
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Fortune’s Fools: early tarot cards

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Author
Elizabeth DeBold

As several of you guessed last week, this month’s crocodile mystery showed an early tarot card. When treating a copy of a 1673 edition of Vincent Reboul’s “Le Pelerinage de S. Maximin,” Folger conservators discovered two tarot cards used to…

The Art of the Prompt Book
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The Art of the Prompt Book

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Author
Elizabeth DeBold

Most library visitors to the Folger expect us to have books in our collections. Some know that we also have art, manuscripts, and even objects. Yet, any exploration into our collections means that researchers will inevitably encounter an item that…

Birdbrained
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Birdbrained

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Author
Elizabeth DeBold

Thanks to everyone who took a guess on this month’s Crocodile Mystery! As several of you pointed out, the teaser image is of some breed of cockatoo or cockatiel. Although I usually know a hawk from a handsaw, I will…

Announcing the Earle Hyman Collection
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Announcing the Earle Hyman Collection

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Author
Elizabeth DeBold

Earle Hyman as the Prince of Morocco in a 1953 production of Merchant of Venice Earlier this year, the Folger Shakespeare Library was privileged to receive the Earle Hyman Collection, including many of the actor’s personal papers, photographs, and theatrical…

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