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Our building and grounds

The Folger Shakespeare Library, designed by Paul Philippe Cret, was dedicated in 1932 and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

The front exterior of the Folger building showing windows and bas reliefs

Reopening Friday, June 21, 2024

Our building opens later this year after a major renovation. Discover what you can do then

About our building

Located a block from the US Capitol, the Folger Shakespeare Library is an Elizabethan monument with a neoclassical exterior.

On the outside, its white Georgia marble harmonizes with nearby buildings, such as the Library of Congress, the Capitol, and the Supreme Court. Inside, the design evokes Tudor England, with oak paneling, ornamental floor tile, and high plaster ceilings.

Continue reading to learn more about the building spaces and distinctive features, both old and new.

Fly through the Folger’s Great Hall, Reading Room, and Elizabethan Theatre with this 8-minute tour.

Reading Room

Built like the great hall of an Elizabethan house, the 131-foot Reading Room incorporates 16th- and 17th-century French and Flemish tapestries, carved oak paneling, a high trussed roof, and a large fireplace.

On the hall screen at the east end hang portraits of the Folgers in their academic robes, painted by the British artist Frank O. Salisbury. Above the Salisbury portraits is a bust of Shakespeare based on his memorial in Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon. The ashes of both Folgers are immured behind a memorial plaque.

Seven Ages of Man window

At the west end of the Reading Room is one of the Folger’s treasures, a large stained-glass window depicting the Seven Ages of Man from Jaques’s speech in As You Like It.

This window is by the Philadelphia stained-glass studio of Nicola d’Ascenzo (1871–1954) and is modeled after the stone tracery of the window after the apse window of Stratford’s Holy Trinity Church.

Although the window is exposed to exterior sunlight, it is in an interior space and is not visible from outside the building.

visitors looking at the Seven Ages of Man stained glass window in the Reading Room during a Shakespeare's Birthday open house
Photo by Chester Simpson

Elizabethan Theatre

The intimate Elizabethan Theatre is the setting for Folger Theatre productions, early music concerts by the Folger Consort, O.B. Hardison Poetry programs, family activities, and many education programs, including the Folger’s student festivals.

With its three-tiered wooden balconies, carved oak columns, and half-timbered facade, the Theatre evokes the courtyard of an English Renaissance inn. Overhead, a canopy represents the sky. In Shakespeare’s day, such inns sometimes served as playhouses for traveling groups of players, who performed on a raised platform at one end while spectators gathered in the yard and on the balconies above.

Great Hall

As part of the building renovation, the Great Hall is transforming from an exhibition space to a public gathering place, and will be home to the new Folger café, Quill & Crumb, which will offer lunch, grab-and-go options, and a full-service bar and light bites in the evening.

The Great Hall evokes the gallery of a 16th-century house with its soaring plaster strapwork ceiling and oak-paneled walls. The terracotta floor incorporates masks of Comedy and Tragedy as well as the titles of Shakespeare’s plays. There is also a white marble memorial bust of Henry Folger produced by John Gregory, the same artist who created the Folger’s exterior bas-reliefs.

The shield and great eagle of the United States grace the west end of the hall, nearest the Capitol. The coat of arms of Elizabeth I, Shakespeare’s queen, represents Great Britain at the east end. Each heraldic device is accompanied by a quotation from a theatrical giant—respectively, the American drama critic William Winter and the British thespian David Garrick.

Exhibition halls

The building renovation is adding two new, large exhibition halls, anchoring the Adams Pavilion.

Exploring the Folger through New Exhibition Halls
Folger Story

Exploring the Folger through New Exhibition Halls

Posted
Author
Esther Ferington

A preview of these new spaces

Shakespeare Exhibition Hall

The First Folio Gallery displays the books at the heart of our Shakespeare collection: all 82 of the Folger’s First Folios. Located nearby is a printing press modeled on ones that printed this 1623 collection of Shakespeare’s plays.

Many rarely seen items from the Folger collection will be on exhibit, including Henry VIII’s schoolbook; the Pavier Quartos; and artifacts from actor Earle Hyman, who played Hamlet in a groundbreaking production at DC’s Howard University in 1951.

Visitors are invited to try their hand at setting type as it happened in a 1623 print shop and work with friends to create a Shakespearean conversation. Families with younger Shakespeare sleuths can follow clues along their own path through the exhibits.

Stuart and Mimi Rose Rare Book and Manuscript Exhibition Hall

The Stuart and Mimi Rose Rare Book and Manuscript Exhibition Hall is a space where the Folger collection can be displayed in many configurations, including showstopping encounters with collection items and opportunities to explore the vast range of subjects covered by books in the Folger vaults.

A dedicated gallery will host a range of changing exhibitions—beginning with a stunning display of books and other objects from the extraordinary collection of Stuart Rose. Highlights from the Rose collection will present literary and historical pieces that have been rarely displayed in public, creating a special opportunity to see rare books and manuscripts that must be seen and experienced.

Gardens and landscaping

Visitors enter the Folger through fully accessible gardens filled with both native plants and plants mentioned by Shakespeare.

Benches and paths invite visitors to relax, as do open green spaces and shade trees, including a heritage magnolia tree planted at the time of the Folger’s 1932 opening.

Inscriptions include a Folger-commissioned poem by US Poet Laureate and Pulitzer Prize-winner Rita Dove welcoming visitors to the Folger.

A Juliet balcony overlooks the east entrance, while an aluminum replica of Brenda Putnam’s Puck statue returns to greet visitors in a new fountain in the west entry garden.

Learning lab

The learning lab is the Folger’s new center for all kinds of learning by all kinds of learners: investigate some of our collection items up close, join with other families to have fun with Shakespeare, take part in summer camp sessions, participate in special sessions for teachers and students, participate in community play readings, develop poetry, playwriting, and songwriting, enjoy lively seminars, and attend demonstrations and workshops for adults led by world-class materials researchers and artists.

New learning opportunities abound, many of them extensions of our exhibitions, research, conservation, programming, performance, and education work.

children raising their hands and smiling during a family program
Photo by Teresa Wood

Bas-reliefs

The Folger building is well known for the Shakespeare bas-reliefs along its north façade, created by the New York sculptor John Gregory (1879–1958).

By convention, this artwork would ordinarily have been positioned much higher, near the top of the building; the Folgers asked for the placement near street level to give the public a better view.

For an in-depth look at the bas-reliefs, explore artist Paul Glenshaw’s blog series, Drawing Shakespeare.

Contemporary artwork

The Folger has commissioned work from three contemporary artists:

  • US Poet Laureate and Pulitzer Prize-winner Rita Dove has written a new poem that will welcome visitors into the west gardens.
  • Renowned artist Fred Wilson, known for reframing cultural symbols that encourage viewers to reconsider social, racial, and historical narratives, is creating a piece to be displayed in conversation with the Folger’s 1579 “Sieve” portrait of Queen Elizabeth I.
  • Innovative artist Anke Neuman, whose installations are created from artisan-made paper that includes optic fibers, has created a paper light sculpture to hang in the stairwell connecting the new east entrance lobby and the historic theater lobby.
New Artwork Illuminates the Renovation
a light sculpture of optical fibers that support and illuminate paper shapes
Folger Story

New Artwork Illuminates the Renovation

Posted
Author
Esther Ferington

A floating paper sculpture by Anke Neumann lights the stairs from the new visitor lobby to the historic theater above.

A New Poem by Rita Dove Invites Visitors Inside
A garden’s embroidery, its fringed pinks and reds, its humble hedges. Every day is Too Much
Folger Story

A New Poem by Rita Dove Invites Visitors Inside

Posted
Author
Esther Ferington

Rita Dove shares the story behind her new poem, which is inscribed in the marble edge around the Folger’s west garden.

Building inscriptions

The Folger Shakespeare Library is filled with inscriptions of quotations by and about Shakespeare. See the text of inscriptions, to whom they are attributed, and their location outside or inside the Folger building.