The Collation
Research and Exploration at the Folger
The Collation is a gathering of useful information and observations from Folger staff and researchers. Read more about this blog
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“What manner o’ thing is your crocodile?”: November 2022
This month crocodile mystery comes from John Ward’s diary, V.a. 291, volume 8, leaf 18v. Can you decipher the highlighted text especially the first and last words of the sentence? Leave your attempts in the comments below and we’ll…
Condicions agreed vppon: a 17th century Polish-Turkish treaty
a guest post by Carrol Benner Kindel Introduction The subject manuscript, page 237 of Folger MS V.b.303, is contained within a “collection of political and parliamentary documents” compiled between the middle of the 16th and middle of the 17th centuries.…
Postcards Folger Directors Sent Me
a guest post by Stephen Grant J. Ainsworth postcard of Folger Exhibition Hall Printed on picture side: Nothing Printed on address side: Exhibition Hall, Folger Shakespeare Library Washington, DC www.folger.edu Barcode 0010060380 Photo by J.…
The Fairy King’s Grimoire
A guest post by Alexander D’Agostino I am an artist working with queer histories and images, through performance and visual art. During my Artist Research Fellowship with the Folger, I am creating The Fairy King’s Grimoire: a reimagining of the…
“Good Grief! What’s That?”: Odd Images in the Folger Microfilm Image Collection
A guest post by William Davis Thank you to everyone who left a guess on this month’s crocodile mystery! Everyone got a piece of it, but none the whole. It takes a stalwart person to identify some of the many quotes…
“What manner o’ thing is your crocodile?”: October 2022
There are many correct aspects to the answer to the question, “What manner of crocodile is this?” The more details you get, the higher your score! So see what you can piece together and we’ll be back next week to…
Macbeth and the End of Slavery in the United States
What can Shakespeare say about the original sin of the United States, slavery? As two artists in the Civil War era thought, a lot. Two cartoons in the Folger’s collections, drawn around a decade apart, allude to Shakespeare’s Macbeth to…
The art of dying
a guest post by Eileen Sperry For early modern English Christians, dying was an art form. The bestseller list of the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, had there been one, would have been topped by some of the period’s many…
Folger manuscripts out and about: a field trip to Penn!
During the Folger’s building renovation, we have been fortunate to be able to send a selection of twenty-nine pre-modern manuscripts up to the University of Pennsylvania Libraries’ Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts in Philadelphia. This exciting…
Frederick William MacMonnies, Shakespeare, circa 1895
Thanks for the great guesses about the object shown in the September Crocodile Mystery! Dawn Kiilani Hoffmann got it right. The photo shows the bottom of the bronze Shakespeare sculpture at the foot of the stairs from the Reading Room.…
“What manner o’ thing is your crocodile?”: September 2022
What manner o’ thing is this? Useless hint: like Antony’s eponymous crocodile, “It is shaped… like itself, and it is as broad as it hath breadth.” It does not, however, move “with it own organs.” Have a guess? Leave a…
Q & A: David McKenzie, Head of Exhibitions
Please join us in welcoming David McKenzie to the Folger as the Head of Exhibitions. In this role, David will oversee the creation of a new Exhibitions department which will focus on re-envisioning the scope, content, and implementation of a…