Top five Collation blog posts of 2025
Take a look at our top five Collation posts from 2025. Thanks for a great year!
“Greetings from Jamaica”
Seventeenth century resonances in a twentieth century postcard sent from Jamaica.
How to be a true widow in early modern England
“Do not seek pleasure in music and singing” and other advice for widows from an early 17th-century manuscript.
Third Time’s a Charm: W. Blount Reads Sidney’s Arcadia
An examination of marginalia in the Folger’s 1593 The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia
Miscellaneous Race
Looking at enslaved Black workers and the 1588 Spanish Armada’s afterlives in a 17th-century English miscellany
A Closer Look at Paste Papers with Folger Conservators
Have you ever noticed a decorated paper on a volume in our collection and wondered how it was made?
Dots and Slashes in Early Modern English Account Books: A Window into the Material Practices of Reckoning
The solution to this month’s Folger Mystery reveals the purpose of dots and slashes drawn in early modern account books
Beyond National Boundaries: A Season of New Acquisitions, Part II
More new exciting additions to the Folger collection!
Beyond National Boundaries: A Season of New Acquisitions, Part I
Caroline Duroselle-Melish, Curator of Early Modern Books and Prints, highlights some exciting new items in the Folger collection
North Africa Through the Eyes of England
A look at some of the colonial sources that informed the understanding that 17th century English people had of North Africa.
Conservation Interns at Work
Conservation interns from the Folger and Library of Congress share their experience working across both institutions to learn new techniques for treating materials and for preparing materials for exhibition.
“I have lately been promoted to the ‘big douche’”
Through her correspondence, Delia Salter Bacon reveals what it was like to undergo a 19th century “water-cure”