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The Collation

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

"What manner o'thing is your crocodile?": January 2018
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"What manner o'thing is your crocodile?": January 2018

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The Collation

Happy Boxing Day! We’ve brought you another crocodile mystery to open with your holiday goodies. This month’s mystery comes in two forms and appears in two places. Tell us, if you would, what these mysterious numbers suggest to you?    …

Twentieth-century illustration technique revealed in a "snow Globe"
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Twentieth-century illustration technique revealed in a "snow Globe"

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Erin Blake

While looking through the Folger collection for snow scenes (it’s that time of year!) I stumbled across this image of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, drawn in the 1960s by C. Walter Hodges: C. Walter Hodges (1909-2004). The Second Globe Under Snow.…

Folger Collections related to Dramatic Performance
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Folger Collections related to Dramatic Performance

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Owen Williams Rachel B. Dankert

In hopes that we can help theater historians discover more about relevant Folger holdings through their own explorations, we have created this post on “named” collections at the Folger that relate to actors, dramatic performance, and the texts used by…

A Sophisticated Leaf
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A Sophisticated Leaf

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Elizabeth DeBold

Henry V fragment. Photo by Elizabeth DeBold. There were several good guesses about this month’s Crocodile Mystery—a crease in the paper, or an off-center, pre-stamped envelope. But, Elisabeth Chaghafi was right on the money with her guess: this is a…

“What manner o’thing is your crocodile?”: December 2017
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“What manner o’thing is your crocodile?”: December 2017

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The Collation

For December’s Crocodile Mystery, tell us, if you will, what’s happening in the images below. Leave your guess in the comments and we’ll be back next week with the answer!  

Collecting the world in seventeenth-century London
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Collecting the world in seventeenth-century London

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Surekha Davies 

Guest post by Surekha Davies  From at least the sixteenth century, overseas artifacts found their way into European princely and scholarly collections. There they were catalogued, analyzed, and displayed alongside natural and artificial curiosities from classical cameos to blowfish. I am…

Theatrical disturbances and actors behaving badly: what the Drury Lane Prompter’s Journal tells us about nineteenth-century theatrical life
Poison as reason for missing rehearsal
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Theatrical disturbances and actors behaving badly: what the Drury Lane Prompter’s Journal tells us about nineteenth-century theatrical life

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Sarah Burdett

Guest post by Dr. Sarah Burdett What was life like inside the nineteenth-century London theatre? How smoothly did performances run? And how professionally did actors behave? The Drury Lane Prompter’s Journal, 1812-1818, held at the Folger, provides an excellent resource…

News, News, News
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News, News, News

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Abbie Weinberg

How do you get your news today? TV? Radio? Printed newspapers? Online news sites? Social media? Today we seem to be inundated by the news 24/7 and it sometimes takes a conscious effort to step away from the barrage. News…

Time writing
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Time writing

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Deborah J. Leslie

Telescopium Uranicum, 1666. Folger 269- 460q item 5 Chronograms—literally, “time writing”—are dates embedded within text. As such, they are a form of hidden writing called steganography: the encoded characters maintain their own value, but are hidden within a larger text.…

Enter Miranda: the Folger's new digital platform
Miranda illustrated by Robert Anning Bell
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Enter Miranda: the Folger's new digital platform

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Meaghan J. Brown

“Admired Miranda! Indeed the top of admiration, worth What’s dearest to the world!” William Shakespeare’s The Tempest (3.1.47-50) Miranda’s home page offers a chance to search by format, genre, date ranges, or language. The Folger Shakespeare Library is thrilled to…

“What manner o’thing is your crocodile?”: November 2017
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“What manner o’thing is your crocodile?”: November 2017

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The Collation

For November’s Crocodile Mystery, tell us, if you will, what’s going on in the image below. Leave your guess in the comments and we’ll be back next week with the answer!

Early modern legal violence: for the common good?
Image of stocks
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Early modern legal violence: for the common good?

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Sarah Higinbotham

A guest post by Dr. Sarah Higinbotham In a 1628 sermon preached before the Assize court at Oxford, Robert Harris reminds the “Sheriffes, Iustices, Iudges” that they have taken “an oath for the common good.” He reminds them that they…

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