Some More Birthdays

This year, the United States is commemorating the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. From now until August 2nd, you can check out Shakespeare and the American Story at the Folger, which highlights objects that explore how Shakespeare has always been part of the American story, including some of the first American editions of Shakespeare’s works. 

Inspired by Abbie’s Collation post that celebrated items turning 500, I checked the Folger catalog for items in the collection that are exactly as old as the signing of the Declaration. A catalog search for Vault items created in 1776 returns 488 catalog records: other things from the Folger collection that turn 250 in 2026. 

But most of the Folger’s collection is older than the Declaration – of the 153,549 catalog records for Vault items in our collection, about two-thirds of those items were created before 1776. Here are a few other items with milestone birthdays in 2026.

Warning: as is often the case with special collections, some of these dates are approximate. You get it. Be cool. 

Printing of the monumental work The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon (1737-1794) began in June of 1775. The publisher William Strahan was already anticipating its success. In October 1775, Strahn wrote “though I will not take upon me absolutely to pronounce in what manner it will be received at first by a capricious and giddy public, I will venture to say, it will ere long make a distinguished figure among the many valuable works that do honour to the present age; will be translated into most of the modern languages, and will remain a lasting monument of the genius and ability of the writer.”¹ The first edition of the first volume was published in February 1776. It was an instant bestseller.

Celebrating its 500th birthday this year is this illustrated 1526 Latin edition of Ovid’s works Ars amatoria (Art of Love) and Remedia Amoris (Remedy of Love). It was printed in Italy by Alessandro Paganino with commentary by Bartholomaeus Merula. About ten years after this publication, Alessandro and his father Paganino Paganini went on to publish the earliest known printed edition of the Quran in Arabic.

We have only one item in the Folger collection that was created in 1276, which is this manuscript from the J.O. Halliwell-Phillipps collection of documents relating to Stratford on Avon, ca. 1270-ca. 1700. In it, James de Clopton grants his grandson, Walter de Cockfield, the family manor in Stratford-upon-Avon.  

The oldest manuscript fragment in the collection is a fragment of the Gospel of Mark, Chapter 3. It survives as manuscript waste that was used as part of the binding in the volume The castell of helth corrected and in some places augmented, by the first author therof, syr Thomas Elyot knight, the yere of our lorde 1541 ( STC 7649). Despite there being so little surviving material, Winfried Rudolf identified that this fragment, written in Old English by a skilled scribe, is from the beginning of Mark’s gospel on the healing of a man on the Sabbath.² 

Older than Ovid, hundreds of years older than the actual decline and fall of the Roman Empire, the oldest item in the collection is about 2072 years old: a silver denarius of Julius Caesar. It was purchased by Henry and Emily Folger in 1910 for $1.60. If you’re wondering what are ancient coins doing at the Folger Shakespeare Library, Erin’s got you covered!